| City’s apparent guilt is a sad day for all football fans 12:24 - Sep 26 with 2516 views | Crawfordsboot |
Whether you support Town, some other side, or City, its worth reflecting that there are three key constituencies here.
Firstly supporters, most of whom support their club through the good and the bad years that all clubs go through. Rivalries exist but most fans respect great football when they see it, whether it’s played by their team or the opposition.
Secondly the players and staff (backroom, caterers, cleaners etc) employed by clubs. All are employees but many will have a club affinity.
These two constituencies are rightly proud of any success achieved by their team. City staff and supporters will have been overjoyed at the success brought to them by their wonderful teams and players of recent years. This success can’t be taken away. Quite simply they were the best.
It is the third group the executive management and ownership who have betrayed Man City fans and indeed all football fans everywhere. They appear to have wilfully misled the authorities at every turn and attempted to deny the evidence as they indulge in sports washing with total disregard for the rules that others have had to play by.
Front and central to the resolution of this scandal should be the use of the “fit and proper integrity test” of the ownership. They would surely fall at the first hurdle! Then the financial consequences that follow should be severe so as to dissuade others from trying to game the rules. Compensation for those clubs that have lost out will be difficult to quantify. How much should go to a premiership side that just missed out on European qualification, or to a European side that failed to reach the next round after a loss to City.
This mess is going to take years to clean up but today i feel some sympathy for the generations of City fans who remember Summerbee, Colin Bell and Frannie Lee and have supported their team through both lean years, and during recent glories. Their clubs reputation is now stained and in tatters. We at Town are so lucky to have a history of Ramsey, Crawford & Phillips, Robson, Muhren & Thysen, and more recently McKenna. |  | | |  |
| City’s apparent guilt is a sad day for all football fans on 00:13 - Sep 27 with 346 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| City’s apparent guilt is a sad day for all football fans on 23:16 - Sep 26 by armchaircritic59 |
My point was that they have absolutely no input into the financial dealings of a football club. Whether they support any action that may result from such financial dealings, is another matter. If the club is found guilty as charged of those offences then obviously supporters who don't recognise the findings are behaving like the ostrich with it's head in the sand. But it doesn't change the fact that they had no part to play in it. |
I agree they have no direct influence over instigating the shenanigans, but as soon as they defend the behaviour they are at best complicit, and at worst encourage and perpetuating it as acceptable behaviour to achieve results. It’s not all the fans of course, but allegedly a significant proportion, which reduces my sympathy for them. |  | | |
| City’s apparent guilt is a sad day for all football fans on 08:13 - Sep 27 with 239 views | Vic |
| City’s apparent guilt is a sad day for all football fans on 16:41 - Sep 26 by BlueBoots |
"The City players did nothing wrong individually they were excellent footballers. They were the best of the best and as footballers they deserve full respect for that. Individually and as a group they were not cheats. They achieved a phenomenal standard of football."
Can't argue with any of that statement, but it would have been impossible to pay the fees to build that squad, pay the wages and bonuses to hold on to those players, and attract the very best in coaching staff without cheating the system. Regardless of how impressive their achievements were, they would have none of them without gaming the system and trying to get away with it.
Football is a team game (well, a squad game now), and although you can argue the players did nothing wrong, the squad was built through cheating. |
I'm with Crawford on this. Unless the players and staff knew of the cheating how are they to blame? I doubt a single player, or Pep, had any idea. I do feel a little sorry for them that all they achieved is about to be pulled from underwhelming because of financial doping.
The Lance Armstrong comparison isnt very good because I suspect most of his support team had some idea of what was going on. if they didnt then yes, they deserve pity too for being taken for a ride by a cheat. |  |
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| City’s apparent guilt is a sad day for all football fans on 08:17 - Sep 27 with 235 views | Mullet |
| City’s apparent guilt is a sad day for all football fans on 08:13 - Sep 27 by Vic |
I'm with Crawford on this. Unless the players and staff knew of the cheating how are they to blame? I doubt a single player, or Pep, had any idea. I do feel a little sorry for them that all they achieved is about to be pulled from underwhelming because of financial doping.
The Lance Armstrong comparison isnt very good because I suspect most of his support team had some idea of what was going on. if they didnt then yes, they deserve pity too for being taken for a ride by a cheat. |
I think it was Mancini who was paid a fairly modest managerial contract but triple that amount for four days “consulting” in the Emirates per year.
So I don’t believe that staff (like the Southampton case) didn’t know - it’s been an open secret for years after all. |  |
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| City’s apparent guilt is a sad day for all football fans on 08:22 - Sep 27 with 229 views | Vic |
| City’s apparent guilt is a sad day for all football fans on 08:17 - Sep 27 by Mullet |
I think it was Mancini who was paid a fairly modest managerial contract but triple that amount for four days “consulting” in the Emirates per year.
So I don’t believe that staff (like the Southampton case) didn’t know - it’s been an open secret for years after all. |
Hmmm - maybe they did then! I've no idea really, just putting out an opinion. Pep was pretty adement everything was above board, but maybe he was lying too? If so then he needs the book thrown at him too. | |
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| City’s apparent guilt is a sad day for all football fans on 08:59 - Sep 27 with 183 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| City’s apparent guilt is a sad day for all football fans on 08:13 - Sep 27 by Vic |
I'm with Crawford on this. Unless the players and staff knew of the cheating how are they to blame? I doubt a single player, or Pep, had any idea. I do feel a little sorry for them that all they achieved is about to be pulled from underwhelming because of financial doping.
The Lance Armstrong comparison isnt very good because I suspect most of his support team had some idea of what was going on. if they didnt then yes, they deserve pity too for being taken for a ride by a cheat. |
Allegedly players were paid additional amounts 'off the books' to obfuscate total wage costs for FFP. Were all the players that naïve / stupid not to have some inkling that it was duplicitous? That just doesn't fly for me. Everyone had to be complicit to some degree. | | | |
| City’s apparent guilt is a sad day for all football fans on 09:22 - Sep 27 with 169 views | skinnybob72 |
I always thought that a way to solve the issue of financial cheating would simply be to allow the ownership of a club to spend whatever they like on transfer fees and wages - but at the end of each season of their ownership the club must have zero debt on the club's balance sheet. In other words if the owners want to spend a fortune it comes from their pockets and does not saddle the club with debts they could not repay if said ownership left.
If someone wants to buy Carlisle United and spend £Billions making them a force then why not? As long as they are spending their own money what's the issue?
However, there should be much stricter rules about the number of senior players clubs can have on the books. You have your named 25 man squad and should be allowed to loan out a maximum of 5 players. That would stop the likes of Man City and Chelsea having so many players out on loan. If you have an injury crisis you go to your u21s.
There should also be limits on much you can spend on u21 players - so a team couldn't bulk out their squad through buying all the upcoming talent.
At the end of the day, unless a wage cap comes in, the biggest clubs will continue to win everything regardless of whatever financial rules are in place. | | | |
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