Manchester City owners’ damaging strategy of appeal, deny and delay will inflict untold damage on countless people. It will inflict damage on this season’s Premier League which is effectively on hold with an unpunished City still involved. It inflicts further damage on the reputation of the world’s most popular sports league. It casts a cloud over the league for seasons to come, for as long as they drag the sport through the courts which they could do.
City owners’ refusal to accept responsibility in the face of overwhelming evidence against them further hardens anger towards the club. The strategy inflicts further damage on a 146-year-old club whose reputation was made by the honest endeavour and thrilling football of that outstanding team of the late 60s and 70s. The actions of City’s current owners risk trashing a historic club’s reputation.
Appeal, deny, delay inflicts further turmoil on the lives of their supporters. City fans’ innate defiance may waver when getting called cheat relentlessly. City fans didn’t cheat. Their club owners did with “sham contracts”, according to the findings of a long, forensic review by an independent commission. But it is City fans facing the consequences of their owners’ book-cookery – in the stands, on the streets, at work. A storm of scorn.
Do City owners also not think of their head coach, Enzo Maresca, and how every press conference will be an inquisition? Every player interview? Every arrival at an away stadium?
Do they not think of all the vital work done by City in the Community, the club’s charitable wing currently trying to celebrate 40 years of helping disadvantaged local people, and how their conduct impacts that?
Appeal, deny, delay damages Abu Dhabi’s own reputation. Do they actually care about football? About pressure on innocent, hard-working staff? About integrity? City’s owners have done plenty of good in East Manchester but that work now seems tainted.
Do they not care about the millions of people in this country who love football. Some may now, because of sham contracts and appeal, deny, delay, simply turn away from the national sport?
Do the owners worry about the UAE’s image? The behaviour of City’s owners is now a diplomatic issue between the UK and the UAE. And good luck to our new ambassador to the UAE, Geraldine McCafferty, who took up the position last month and will need all her diplomatic skills acquired in Sarajevo, Bogota and Beijing.
If they had a shred of responsibility, City owners would call off the lawyers, accept the independent commission’s findings, take the punishment and seek some settlement with the Premier League over compensation to other clubs. Appeal, deny, delay helps nobody.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, this prayer was written by St. Padre Pio himself. We are told that he believed that many people got healed through this prayer. You can say it for yourself or anyone else that needs healing. Please say this prayer trusting in God’s love for you. He always answers our prayers. Let Him take care of you and you will be healed. Padre Pio Feast Day is on 23 September.
The Most Powerful Healing Prayer by St. Padre Pio
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Heavenly Father, I thank you for loving me. I thank you for sending your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, to the world to save and to set me free. I trust in your power and grace that sustain and restore me. Loving Father, touch me now with your healing hands, for I believe that your will is for me to be well in mind, body, soul and spirit.
Cover me with the most precious blood of your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. Cast anything that should not be in me. Root out any unhealthy and abnormal cells. Open any blocked arteries or veins and rebuild and replenish any damaged areas.
Remove all inflammation and cleanse any infection by the power of Jesus’ precious blood. Let the fire of your healing love pass through my entire body to heal and make new any diseased areas so that my body will function the way you created it to function. Touch also my mind and my emotion, even the deepest recesses of my heart.
Saturate my entire being with your presence, love, joy and peace and draw me ever closer to you every moment of my life. And Father, fill me with your Holy Spirit and empower me to do your works so that my life will bring glory and honour to your holy name. I ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Please stop for a moment and say a prayer for Fr Aidan O’Kane CP a Passionist priest from the Glens of Antrim and Parish Priest of Mount Argus in Dublin, who has suffered a serious spinal injury following a freak accident while on pilgrimage in Međugorje. He has undergone surgery, but at present the extent of his recovery remains unclear.
There is a particularly cruel poignancy to this. Fr Aidan had already been recovering from a separate long-term illness and was looking forward to returning to his priestly ministry next week. Those who know him speak of a priest with a deeply traditional spirituality and a strong devotion to Our Lady. So perhaps Catholics around the world who see this can offer a Rosary, a decade, a Mass intention, or simply an Ave Maria for him today.
May Our Lady, whom Fr Aidan has loved and served, remain especially close to him now, and may St Charles of Mount Argus intercede for his healing.
Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for him.
St Charles of Mount Argus, pray for him. St. Padre Pio pray for him and may God strengthen and console Fr Aidan in the days ahead. 🙏 https://t.co/6KfZUJUJkK
@EBL2017 Excellent analysis but Brighton never feared our attack from minute one to minute 96. This I believe gives them the confidence to play and win the way they do. And other teams will take note although not all of them will be as effective as Brighton.
Dominic Auricchio is a 13-year-old Catholic boy from New Jersey who has felt called to become a priest since he was just four years old. He says that when he was four, he had a dream where God told him he was meant to be a priest.
Years later, Dominic developed a serious brain mass and began having seizures. During that difficult time, he saw the Blessed Virgin Mary, who reassured him that everything was going to be okay. Not long afterward, doctors discovered that the mass had unexpectedly started shrinking on its own, without surgery.
Keep the Blessed Mary close in your life. Ask her to watch over your family. She is capable of wondrous things. 🥰
@TomCantonMedia The media are all united! Arteta has spent a lot and we have never won back to back premier league since the 30s. Pressure on Arsenal! City are only rebuilding. No pressure
@CarlBovis_AFC Carl I’m sorry but you can put as positive a slant on it as you like but the bottom line is our left side of attack is weaker this year than last
El 17 de agosto de 1897, el doctor Francisco La Néele visita a Santa Teresita por primera vez.
Pide ver a Teresita y constata que sólo le quedan 15 días de vida. Este es su testimonio:
"Una vez presentada... Me conmoví hasta las lágrimas al hablar con ella, tomando sus manos transparentes todas ardientes de fiebre.
Después de escuchar su corazón, la hice sentar sobre sus almohadas. «¿Iré pronto al Buen Dios?», me dijo.
- «Todavía no, mi querida hermana, Dios quiere que esperes unas semanas para que tu corona en el cielo sea más hermosa».
- ¡Oh! no, yo no pienso eso. Es para salvar almas por lo que quiero sufrir todavía".
- Sí, es verdad, pero salvando almas subirás más alto en el cielo, más cerca de Dios".
La respuesta fue una sonrisa que iluminó su rostro como si los cielos se abrieran ante sus ojos e inundaran su luz divina.
- «¿En cuántos días iré al cielo?».
- "En tu estado, hermanita mía, es difícil saberlo. En unas semanas, un mes, tal vez más, a menos que ocurra un accidente, a menos que no tengas mucha prisa por ir a ver a Dios".
- «Porque Él quiere esperaré»
Me quedé una buena media hora cerca de ella con Celina y la madre priora. Volví a besarla al salir y me acompañó hasta la puerta con su sonrisa que nunca olvidaré."
@JacobsBen@RobDorsettSky Feel sorry for Konsa who at 29 will never get a chance to play for the Arsenal again. Fair play to Villa though they don’t want to lose him.
@laythy29 100% agree. Only those who watched Cesc in an Arsenal shirt will know. He gave everything for the shirt every game. The passion he showed was on a different level. He’s an Arsenal legend and it was ridiculous that we missed the chance to bring him back.