David Melia

Dad | Husband | Brother | Son | Founder and Host of The Site Cabin Podcast | coach | gamer | Pie Radio interviewer

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

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.

[David Melia @DavidMelia]

What a fabulous piece. All @ManCity fans need to read it.

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

Guilty, guilty, sham and shame. How on earth can Manchester City appeal a verdict as devastating and damning as the one passed down by the independent commission investigating breaches of financial regulations? City will appeal, of course, and it’s their right under Premier League rules. They clearly will appeal, claiming the verdict is “unsafe” but they are surely simply delaying the inevitable punishment, making themselves even more unpopular, damaging their club and the game further.

For justice to truly prevail in this case, punishment has to be swift. For City to start the long journey back on the road to redemption, they have to take their medicine. These are dark days in the history of the Premier League and they are darkest at the Etihad. City's owners have to see the light, accept their guilt and begin the process of rehabilitation.

An appeal involving deny, deny, delay, delay, shreds any sporting integrity this season has. The thought of this taking years to resolve – doubtless via the High Court - feels potentially ruinous, certainly deeply damaging, for the sport. How many people will be turned off by a league stained by a constantly updated asterix, by a sport effectively run by lawyers. City have to take their medicine now.

For sporting competitions to survive and thrive, there has to be a willingness on all parties to play fair on and off the field. That may sound naive, an outdated purist principle, but it matters to many. A few engaged in the game will take short-cuts but one of the reasons why the Premier League is so followed around the world is because of the perception of its essential honesty.

Players give everything from first minute to last. Promoted teams can occasionally trouble the established order. But industrial-level cooking of the books highlighted in the independent commission’s report, effectively allowing City, regular champions, to spend more on players will shake confidence in the competition.

City’s owners have to think very carefully, not least about their own and their famous club’s reputational damage. Read the room. Read the statement. How can they possibly answer the powerful, damning language used in detailing the offences devised to circumvent FFP. Others were playing by the rules, City were bending them, the commission found. City fans can argue that FFP/PSR/SCR rules are anti-competitive, and protect the “cartel” as they see it, but City signed up to the rules.

And, then, in the words of the Premier League CEO Richard Masters, “systematically broke” those rules for “nearly a decade”. Masters deserves to feel vindicated for his quiet, firm leadership of the league in this long, tense case against such a wealthy, self-confident member.

Many of the 40 pages of findings in the "core decision" contain blow after blow to City. If the Premier League versus Manchester City were a boxing bout, the referee would have stepped in. “Sham contracts”, “misstated accounts”, “concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators”. “Egregious acts of non-cooperation”. Basically, deception writ large.

A phrase that will now pass into the annals of footballing infamy is the “Disguised Funding Scheme” whereby companies “were only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees. The remainder was funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd”. ADUG. City’s owners. The “Disguised Funding Scheme” basically overstated sponsorship income by £830.69m. A staggering amount.

This is now not about Manchester City the club, but Manchester City the ownership, including the chief executive Ferran Soriano. They have to stop embarrassing the club and the sport. They have to stop letting down their fans. City’s owners have to consider the relentless abuse coming the way of fans, players and coaching staff in games to come, starting when entering what will be a bear-pit at Anfield on October 11.

Soriano, assuming he attends, can expect a particularly uncomfortable afternoon in his seat and in the Liverpool boardroom. It’s hard to see how he keeps his job – if City’s appeal fails. Fit and proper person?

In continuing to protest their innocence, City claim they have “irrefutable evidence” to defend themselves. If so, why weren’t three independent judges persuaded? City have had long enough, employed exceptional briefs, and still lost.

Having been found guilty of doing the wrong thing, City now have to do the right thing and that is accept the inevitability of sanctions and seek some form of settlement with the Premier League. They will not, of course: too proud, too defiant, still too convinced of their innocence despite the weight of this report. They will become outcasts even without yet being cast out. That is to come.

City's owners have to acknowledge the impact their activities had on other clubs, and accept the considerable compensation claims flooding their way from other clubs they pipped to trophies, possibly even from players. If they’re sensible they will look for a settlement that includes substantial compensation, running into hundreds of millions of pounds, to aggrieved clubs who missed out on trophies, on prize money. Maybe that £830.69m should be the figure considered in any settlement. Fitting.

City's owners have to see sense. The alternative is years and fortunes spent in the courts. Nobody wins. Except the lawyers. Football loses, because the game remains on hold until City are punished.

[David Melia @DavidMelia]

My thoughts on the @ManCity scandal, until it’s resolved, at all games. As the match clock strikes 11 minutes 4 seconds The opposing fans on mass turn their back on the game. For a full minute! #scandal #city #charges #oneonefive #viral

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

❤️🦉⚡️
https://t.co/Qn8oZKBuu5

[David Melia @DavidMelia]

@facebook need help merging two identical pages I have. Can’t find the merge function. Please help!

[The Site Cabin Podcast @SiteCabin]

We’re back on 3 I Atlas again, if it’s crashing into Earth and only Bruce Willis can save us! 💥🌎 Oh, and while we’re at it… is Die Hard a Christmas film or not? 🎄 #TheSiteCabinPodcast #ArmageddonVibes #brucewillis #fyp #viral #diehard

[David Melia @DavidMelia]

I’ve been on hold with you for 40 minutes now. Your chat bot is terrible and all I want to do is speak to someone about extending the WiFi in my home. Your customer services is absolutely shocking!!

[David Melia @DavidMelia]

@JesseLingard Might have something to do with you guys celebrating a loss and dancing in the locker room when we got beat? Maybe that hey Jesse? How’s South Korea going? 😂

[David Melia @DavidMelia]

Peter Drury. He’s the most biased commentator I’ve ever heard. He’s so bad. Stop with the stupid puns and phrases and call the game as you see it!! @tntsports

[David Melia @DavidMelia]

@PizzaExpress in Stockport, what a disgrace!! Can’t split a bill to be itemised, Peroni £7.25 a bottle and a Diet Coke £3.55 a can!!

[David Melia @DavidMelia]

@WilliamHill where has Scorecast gone??? For all games!!!!

[David Melia @DavidMelia]

@WilliamHill why isn’t score cast available on Southampton vs Man U?

[David Melia @DavidMelia]

@Mattisamazing33 Them two fully deserved what they got from the police. Well done @gmp for matching fire with fire.

[David Melia @DavidMelia]

@LoganMUFC2004 @TheGodofSEO2 @AleksDjuricic The reporter is there you Nobber! Filming the fight. Duuuuuuhhhhh

[David Melia @DavidMelia]

@LoganMUFC2004 @TheGodofSEO2 @AleksDjuricic Sky News are reporting it was Albanian and Serbian.

[David Melia @DavidMelia]

@TheGodofSEO2 @LoganMUFC2004 @AleksDjuricic You’re wrong mate. And now you are afraid to admit your poor journalism. Embarrassing

[David Melia @DavidMelia]

@talkSPORT Sky have literally just reported it’s Albanian and Serbian fans. Take your lies down and stop sensationalising headlines about England fans.

[David Melia @DavidMelia]

@AleksDjuricic Like I said. Not England fans. You should tweet an apology and fact check before you post lies!

[David Melia @DavidMelia]

@TheGodofSEO2 @AleksDjuricic Who’s the clown now!! Hahaha is that an apology above with Sky News or just shocking journalism from you sensationalising for views and clicks. Pathetic!! And embarrassing

[David Melia @DavidMelia]

@FBAwayDays How do you know it’s England fans?