🚨 WATCH: Education Secretary and Manchester City fan Lucy Powell:
"Can I just say to all those United fans who have been gloating all week - you're still crap and you know you are"
“I would be really concerned to lose them.” Prime Minister Andy Burnham on the possibility of Manchester City’s owners selling up. What?! These are owners found guilty of serial breaches of the Premier League rule-book by three judges on an independent commission after a lengthy investigation. Owners who outraged other clubs and countless fans by flouting the rules and inflating sponsorship income with the Disguised Funding Scheme.
Owners who misled auditors and regulators, who threaten to bring this Premier League season – and, potentially, future seasons - to a standstill by their appeal, deny, delay tactics. Owners who are patently not proper custodians of a famous, historic club. Owners who many hope will sell up and ship out after bringing such shame and sham contracts to the game.
So these are astonishing, alarming comments from the PM. “I do actually thank the City Football Group and the wider ownership for the money that they didn't just put into the Etihad and the campus around it but also into the city," Burnham told the BBC’s Chris Mason.
Come on, PM. Read the room. Read the commission’s report. Read the belligerent statements from the Abu Dhabi owners and their chief executive like Ferran Soriano. Rather than thank CFG, perhaps thank the diligence of the Premier League in seeking to enforce its rules and protect the national sport. Perhaps thank the three judges for their pain-staking work in sifting through reams of evidence and coming to their considered conclusion.
Burnham spoke as a politician seemingly with one eye on diplomatic and trade links. He spoke as a former mayor whose city benefited from investment in east Manchester by Abu Dhabi. “They've been such a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester and obviously the building of Manchester City into the global force that it is.” And how was that building financed?
Burnham spoke as a politician and not the football fan that he truly is. The lifelong Evertonian is usually pretty sound on football matters. He misread the mood of many fans not wanting the possible return of drinking in Premier League stands but that was a rare misstep. This is far worse. This makes him look out of touch with the prevailing mood. He was speaking at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Maybe he should head to Anfield on Sunday week and witness the anger felt towards City.
Burnham did add that he wasn’t getting involved in the process and that City had a right to appeal if they felt harshly treated. But how does the PM’s sympathetic words for controversial owners help the independent football regulator charged by Government with leading the fight against those who risk the credibility of their club, who play fast and loose with the rules and who damage the integrity of the national sport?
How frustrating if Burnham’s words embolden City's owners and Soriano further. Bit of an own goal by No 10.
Hereford arrived at the Stan Robinson Stadium top of the table and unbeaten in eight, two divisions above Stafford Rangers.
But it was @SRFCofficial who progressed with a fantastic win 👏
So, based on things I have read today, some people are reporting that JJ Gabriel’s dad thinks he should be playing UCL & PL football at 15 and is now telling his son to demand to leave, and not show up to train todat and force a move... despite the fact he was set to make his debut tomorrow?
Hard to know how much of this is true, but this is shocking. We saw what happened to Sancho and Garnacho when they acted like this and thought they were bigger than Man Utd. I am sorry, but JJ Gabriel is generational for his age. However, I don’t think he is physically ready for PL and UCL minutes.
I think Man Utd are protecting him by doing this! If he plays a few times for us and underperforms, he will get rinsed like the Fletcher twins, and it will knock his confidence.
I honestly think he has Ballon d’Or-level potential, but those influencing him could lead him to become the next Jadon Sancho.
No 15-year-old is refusing to attend training and demanding to leave without influence from those above him. We see so many generational 15–18-yr olds in football not make it because the people around them big them up and create attitude and ego issues.
Please, can no United fans send any hate towards JJ Gabriel. He is a 15 yr old kid who clearly has the wrong people around him. I understand that Barcelona is his dream and may be the best long-term place for him, but any normal parent would tell their kid to keep working hard, stay grounded and move to Barcelona when his registration ends in the summer.
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