Manchester City found guilty on almost all Premier League financial charges
🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Manchester City found guilty on virtually all charges relating to breaches of Premier League financial regulations. #MCFC expected to appeal against verdict issued by independent commission. Sanctions undecided, process ongoing @theathleticfc.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/athletic/704...
Dave Robinson146Two year suspended transfer ban and a fifty quid fine incoming 
Timmy47Pep knew it was coming, that’s why he scarpered
sebzilla47Relegate them to the North West Counties League and redistribute all the trophies they've won in the past 17 years.
Indiana Justice32Liquidate the club. Only way to be sure.
Rosco29Strip them of every trophy they cheated their way to over all those years, and relegate them to the conference! (They will get a meaningless fine.)
Kieran18Guess it will take another 4-5 years for the appeal, same again for penalties to be decided
Thomas Lund Hansen16Jeg håber, at City bliver ramt af de hårdest mulige sanktioner. Grådigheden, korrumperingen og - ja, det er et hårdt ord - voldtægten af vores sport trænger til af få en over nakken. Der bliver nødt til at blive sendt et signal om, at fodbold har fjernet sig for langt fra fansene.
Treblig 🇺🇦13I am choosing to believe the premier league were waiting for Enzo Fernandez to jump on this sinking ship before they announced anything
Viktor Fagerström11“MCFC found guilty on virtually charges” yet I’m still extremely sceptical the punishment will fit the crime. - All titles should be voided. - Moved down to a lower league (making point deduction redundant). - Astronomical fines for robbing countless of their peers of fairness. etc etc etc
Adam Smith8We all knew they were cheats. Now it’s confirmed. I look forward to nothing happening.
CDRE Fool Mental Jackass VI7Cannot wait for the Reverse Welcome To Wrexham about this they should make them play in a park and work their way back up from dead ass last like freakin Rangers
Kristin Wilkinson 🍁3Give Steven Gerrard his trophy
William Caldwell2Fair bit going on while I was asleep.
fuchsia2Strip them of the their titles and have no winners for those seasons. Relegation and massive fines. Force the sale of the club. If you skirt the rules of the competition you shouldn’t be in that competition. Plain and simple.
95Sports2Hopefully this means MLS Cup 2020 is vacated as well
Tony2Levels of copium from Man City fans is off the scale right now.
When Manchester City return to Premier League action next month, what will their games mean? Title contenders, fighting against relegation or an utter irrelevance? The league’s present, like its past, has been warped beyond repair.
Nothing special5Great article, James. The one thing I think you missed was how City, and others before and after them, have distorted the transfer market for all of world football as well. The PL arms race has decimated the other leagues outside of a few clubs.
Matt Browner Hamlin4Well done James. I think the scale of the crimes & their long running impact - now clearly describable as damage - should mean the punishments are suitably harsh and ideally defining for how the league works for decades to come.
ryan105.bsky.social2How can they possibly play well under this cloud? And the sanction is likely to be known by the middle of January. My guess is they play average for the rest of the season and then they all start jumping ship.
andyppp.bsky.social1They should be fined 80 points, fuck them
Tommy1Brilliant piece, James. Don't think I've ever seen a case that could have so many ramifications. Fascinating to see how this all shakes out. Hopefully with City playing in the National League next season.
1.76 Acres14This is a great piece. Bravo, James.
Pete (beautifulgroan)2This is very good. Football is going to be weird until at least the turn of the year.
Adam in San Antonio2When Manchester City show up at Anfield after the break, what will their reception be like? Will the Kop have a new song for them? Will they sing “sold off in January” to Haaland every time he gets the ball? So excited to find out.
two things I think are true -Man City should receive maximal punishment for their decades of bad faith and cover-up -it is mostly neither here nor there in evaluating the "fairness" of the Premier League, which is among the most unfair sports leagues in history
Grace Robertson 🏳️⚧️13sometimes you lose because someone threw a beach ball onto the pitch. the game is the game.
Jonny Singer9You are right, of course, but there’s clearly a difference between ‘the rules are unequal’ and ‘these guys deliberately and consistently broke the rules’. You should try to fix the first, but you have to punish the second
Greg Basta4Yeah I try to avoid saying anything that could be interpreted as “this is truly unjust and unfair to the good people at Kroenke Sports & Entertainment”
Robert Baker2Just finished reading The Club, and yeah, everything here is basically on brand.
Richard Solutions2If the Everton punishments were a precedent what could this even look like
Sam Limes1a third thing - if City are given a points deduction this year Arsenal cruise to retaining the EPL which nobody wants to see
Super Kai23It’s not even that close to being one of the most unfair in Europe
Jeff Fecke5One of the great ironies is that American sports operates like a socialist utopia (within the leagues, I mean -- they're capitalists outside it) while European sports operates as pure laissez-faire capitalism. All the time.
A seismic day in football history - but with a lot of earthquakes to come The fact the Premier League have not yet released a statement amid widespread expectations they will win most charges against Manchester City shows this "is nowhere near the end" www.independent.co.uk/sport/footba...
Economics Teacher4Well done, a great effort by proper journalists like yourself who are never afraid to use sportswashing in their work.
John Larkin3I hope you spent the day giving it back to every single one of those city fans who have given you shit during the years for your reporting on this case!! 😂
captainlydon.bsky.social2Well done Miguel. Seems vindication for all your reporting
sandracarioca.bsky.social2Just want to say that I truly appreciate your years long work on covering this. You're neutral, objective and thorough. Not every journo who covers this issue is.
Learning English Through Football1I wonder what the other 19 PL owners/Chairs say about this?
AlexAFCKidd1Good to see you’re not hiding the facts and avoiding using the word ‘guilty’, unlike Sky Sports… which utterly stinks. Let’s hope this isn’t hidden anymore and people with a platform stand up
City were charged by the Premier League in February 2023. www.nytimes.com/athletic/704...
Reno Wallabout67Spurs in 20th, get first pick in the dispersal draft
Sam P920 point deduction to Everton
Jason4I wish I had some popcorn to grab.
Haruoomfie Hosono4Josh Posting going to be furious when he wakes up in 18 hours
Minoru-kun (🏆Premier League Champions)3I am petty enough that I had to return to twitter to read all the Manchester City slander
Gavin3If they expunge all City results from the record, are we going to get relegated last season?? 😂 #COYS
Sergio (Mikasa @A_Trallon)3Hasta que no vea la sanción no me creo nada. Que poderoso caballero es Don Dinero…
prezmullet.bsky.social3Imagine if the LA Clippers got caught doing Kawhi stuff at a 100x scale, won 3 NBA championships, and lost 3 other Finals in the past 7 years. That’s what this is.
🎟️ Mayamiko3meh we’ll be fine, we’ll take it to CAS, they’ll overturn it, it was a kangaroo court anyways
Kim S. Kristensen3Men har de mot nok til å straffe et av moderne fotballs verste brudd på FFP?
Manchester City greatest crime is warping reality and history for all football supporters. The dreadful irony: the only thing worse than the uncertainty of not having a verdict is having a verdict and realising that uncertainty is now all we have. ⬇️ inews.co.uk/sport/footba...
Philarsopher7Obvs the headline isn’t your doing, but important that the verdict itself does something to amend the league’s damaged reputation. City have done the damage, and it’s credit to the league that they persevered throughout years of legalistic bullying.
Russ Cole1Manchester Vity The Lance Armstrong of our beloved game. 👎🏻
