It was a seemingly innocuous email, sent on a Wednesday morning in January 2017, that started everything.
Arriving in the inbox of a senior official at Manchester City, it appeared to have been sent by an employee from European football’s governing body, UEFA, and contained a link to a financial compliance report.
The City official clicked the download button. That was all it took.
It was not a genuine email from UEFA but a successful phishing attempt by Portuguese hacker and activist Rui Pinto. City’s servers were breached, allowing Pinto to retrieve thousands of emails and documents from the club’s systems.
This week, almost 10 years on from Pinto’s first email, the Premier League announced that an independent panel had found City guilty of all but one of the charges against them, as The Athletic first revealed last Friday.
📝 @jwhitey98: https://t.co/iZ74j9gKJE
Chelsea really sold one of the greatest PL players of all time because Jose Mourinho said so. This is when manager power on signings/sellings should have died.
University of Houston coach Kelvin Sampson on Jamal Shead signing a new three-year $24 million extension with the Toronto Raptors a year early, just two seasons into his NBA career: "I told Toronto before the draft, I told all those guys, 'Look you can sit there and figure out what's wrong with every player.' That's what most cynical people do. Always figure out what's wrong, that's how they see things.
"But if you want to win and have a player that's dependable you can count on. . . Sometimes a player's greatest strength can be dependability. And that's what Jamal is. His attributes talent wise is No. 1 his strength. I mean, he is strong. His thighs and his butt. That's a powerful little dude. But his leadership, his basketball IQ, his fearlessness, his competitiveness. I hear a lot of people say he's not quite big enough.
"My response is always the same. You're always big enough if you're good enough. And Jamal is."
🚨BREAKING: UAE THREATENS UK over Manchester City Scandal.
The UAE is saying it’ll pull BILLIONS in investment money for a project labeled the UK’s Silicon Valley.
Man City’s chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, met UK politicians 2 weeks BEFORE the Premier League announced City’s guilty verdict. - The Telegraph
🚨💣 𝐄𝐗𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐕𝐄: Florentino Pérez launches a scorched-earth attack on Barcelona and Pep Guardiola! 🤬🔥⚪️
🔵 The 2009 Chelsea Scandal: Pérez claims Barcelona should have never reached the 2009 Champions League final, declaring that "Chelsea was robbed" in what he calls "the biggest robbery in Champions League history."
🏆 "Stole 7 Titles": The Madrid chief aggressively claims Barcelona stole seven La Liga titles, asserting it all took place under Pep Guardiola's regime.
❌ Guardiola Disrespected: Pérez completely dismissed Guardiola's legendary status, stating he easily links to football scandals and does not belong in the same breath as Ferguson, Wenger, Mourinho, or
Ancelotti: "Pep Guardiola isn't even in the Top 6 best managers in the world." 🤯🔨
Toronto Raptors guard Jamal Shead has agreed to a three-year, $24 million contract extension with the franchise, his agent KJ Smith tells ESPN. The new deal keeps Shead under contract through the 2029-30 season.
7️⃣🇵🇹 Rafa Leão: “It’s been special for me to wear the No7 shirt because Cristiano is my idol since I was a child”.
“My kids were also born on the 7th so I am so happy”.
“I tried my best to respect this number, this shirt. I am happy with the win”.
🚨🚨 BREAKING: Real Madrid has requested that Barcelona be STRIPPED of ALL titles won during the years in which the Catalan club paid off the VP of refs, Negreira.
They want Barcelona STRIPPED of EVERYTHINg they won between 2001 and 2018.
UEFA are now OFFICIALLY investigating, and could BAN Barcelona from their competitions. @diarioas