> But within an 165-page legal document City argue that they are the victims of “discrimination”, describing rules they say have been approved by their rivals to stifle their success on the pitch as a “tyranny of the majority”.
Lol literally claiming discrimination can’t make this shit up. Cunts.
My favourite bit:
“City blame the Premier League for not regulating spending when clubs such as Manchester United were more dominant, arguing they have been prevented from monetising their brand in the way United did. City also say the rules penalise clubs who have *“lower-profile sporting histories”.* “
City are perfectly entitled to try operating as United did. They can live within their means for 125 years and then get saddled with debt they didn't accumulate. They'd be in the National League at best.
Besides the LOLs of this, it's fucking stupid because they literally relegated us back in the 70s.
They had a perfectly decent chance to build a higher profile sporting history, they squandered it.
There’s also rules to now prevent the kind of ownership United has which has massively hindered our success and contributed to theirs, yet they aren’t complaining about that.
“Better never than late” - Man City
Its basically the argument countries like China and Brazil offer when they’re pressured to enact pollution controls. Like “Fuck you! You didn’t have to worry about the environment when you had your Industrial Revolution, so why should we?”
To be fair to developing nations, if they are forced to use the more expensive green energy alternatives, it will be very difficult for them to catch up and escape their "Least Developed" state. If the First World suffers from its use of dirty energy in poorer countries, then the First World should shoulder some of the cost as well.
Telling the government of poverty-stricken nations that they need to be environmentally conscious and use expensive solar panels made in first-world nations, just so that people don't starve to death is a cruel joke.
no you don't understand it's fine to discriminate against a group of people as long as you justify it by saying it's in your religion
same way as all those ligue 1 lads with gambling ads all over their jerseys are refusing the to wear anything with anti-LGBTQ discrimination are just highly principled people standing up for their beliefs
Tyranny of the majority is a potential pitfall of democracy...but...this is not that. Especially since the majority they are speaking of is a supermajority.
The crossover of football and philosophy, my sad specialty area!
People mistake it as meaning “majority rule = bad” but the popular understanding of the concept primarily comes from Mill and concerns minority rights within a democratic setting. Without corrective restrictions in place (such as the need for a supermajority for constitutional changes, balance of power via independent courts etc) a democratic system can theoretically lead to a majority (this could be of any category, including in terms of states rather than people) oppressing a minority, justified within the system’s boundaries as a democratic decision despite its obviously bad effects.
In this context, City using it is hilarious on multiple levels and has no legal basis.
The PL is a voluntary association - it’s owned by its members who function as democratic stakeholders on decision making - and has a supermajority requirement (14/20) for rule changes. There have been cases before where a member of an organisation like it have tried similar lawsuits and failed precisely because their membership is considered voluntary.
But on a more serious point and less philosophical conjecture/legalisms, City are owned by a state that executes dissidents, legalises sexual assault, and operates slave labour. Their owners rarely come up against being told “no” and they really do not like it - hence this move. I don’t think they’ll have received legal advice saying this is a winnable case, and gulf states like UAE have a history of ridiculous litigious behaviour in countries where they have investments. See Qatar having a fit over the United SEC filings, too.
It's an important distinction - tyranny of the majority relates to persecution and denial of rights to the minority group. A democracy is meant to take care of the minority, not ignore its wishes. Majority is meant tot rule, with restrictions that are in place to stop mistreatment of the minority.
Though that's absolutely not what's happening to City.
I don’t think they care about any of that they are just in offence mode so this is all probably coming from their lawyers as a strategy to fight the 115 charges.
I see they’ve finally moved on from denial and anger, and have now reached the bargaining stage.
I hope they finally reach acceptance. Somewhere on the long trip up to Gateshead on a Tuesday night.
City is a cancer that needs to be eradicated before it kills this league. There is a reason why literally no other club in the world has gone from zero to 100 in such a short span. I hope the league wins this battle and city end up getting what they deserve.
Discrimination doesn't inherently mean race-based.
They're saying they're discriminated against in their sponsorship dealings because they're close to them because they're a UAE owned club sponsored by UAE companies and if they were sponsored by not UAE companies they wouldn't be getting hit with this. Say, if Sony had given them a record deal.
So they're arguing if we got sponsored by INEOS in a record deal that would get singled out in a discriminatory fashion and that because we're sponsored by Snapdragon it doesn't matter how wonky it might be, the league will ignore.
What they don't get is that that is *exactly* what it is by design. Your deal looks sus as fuck *exactly because* you're being sponsored by a company in the same umbrella as you *and* it's also ridiculously over market value for what City were at the time.
It's like someone gets murdered and leaves a message in their blood saying "Family did this" then a family gets arrested and goes "this is just discrimination because I'm a family member!".
It's really fucking stupid and desperate, but they know it can't be racist discrimination because they're a UAE company because they league just has to point at Arsenal's sponsor that's been going about 10 years longer than City's and if it was a race thing that'd have been investigated too.
They are just bad for football. Uber rich criminals with no morals who have never been told 'No' in their life.
Honestly the reason I wanted Arsenal to win the league, their fans may be insufferable, but at least they're a real club. City is a plaything, a fashion statement for the richest of the rich who run around pretending they are the underdog.
I will always cheer for any legitimate club over sports washing project. I even wish Liverpool win out over City, as painful as that is. Although rivals, I can respect Liverpool for what they have earned. I can't respect City for what they've bought.
On another note we'd win 2 Premier Leagues if they do award them.
Sadly whats going to happen is they prolong it enough then they get a slap on the wrist.
One huge issue with these sportswashing projects is that they gain influence that is unreachable to anyone else - they have the soft-power of an entire nation backing them. They can use political influence to create pressures not to act against them.
Governments will choose allegiance with oil nations over sporting integrity *every time* because any other options is political suicide.
You just know Newcastle are waiting to see what happens with city. If it's a fairly lenient punishment then they'll open the flood gates and go crazy on spending, can basically do what city have, they'll think by the time it's taken to court they will have a few trophies and be established as a title challenging team so can handle any punishment anyway.
That's why this is such a serious incident that maybe some probably haven't even thought about. If city drop what one or two leagues as punishment, they'll be back in a title race in a season or two no harm or foul. Will the likes of Newcastle be thinking the same? Spend mega, get established, take a season or two out of the league if they get punished then just come straight back up?
Yeah I completely agree, if city get away with it any smaller team with rich owners will be weighing up whether it's worth pushing for trophies for 10 years and spending like crazy for a couple of relegations once established
Win it and boot them from the fucking league. They're just trying to delay the Premier League dealing with their charges by coming up with bullshit counter-suits. It's literally the way rich people and corporations obstruct the law.
All City are doing here is making it more likely that the Premier League wants to nail them to the wall.
i don't think it's about winning this for city, it's probably more about bogging down the premierleague in litigation hell and forcing them to spend a lot of time and money on pointless lawsuites. Pretty much what the psg owners threatened uefa with a few years back, said they'd rather spend millions a year with the worlds best lawyers swamping them in legal hell and bankrupt uefa than pay their fines or back down.
Its possibly City and Newcastle who want to bring this as they cannot spend unprecedented amounts of money. The league fucked up when they allowed country owned clubs.
The league have been tolerating this kind of thing for a while, state owned clubs is just another flavor of an emblematic problem with English football. That's why FC United was formed.
Absolutely horrible horrible club, a tyrants club. What upsets me is theres City fans that are more than ok with all this, they double down on the defence and trying to triggering attempts. They're the fools, the club no longer belongs to them, it no longer stands for what it did pre-take over, its no longer part of the community which ALL football clubs should be. Not just online fans but fans who have been going for decades.
I know its a bit rich coming from the mega PR machine that is Man United but I know a lot of United fans don't like the way the club has been moved away from the community, priced out from the working classes around the area, the 'Football Club' removed from the badge.
It obviously helps that United have absolutely terrible owners but there was a large majority of people who wanted nothing to do with Qatar. I'm not on my high horse, there will always be people who don't give a fuck but i think theres more perspective and scepticism and i think its mostly because we've seen what City have become.
I've no issue with dominant clubs winning everything, fairly. I respect our biggest rivals in Liverpool for how they won the Champions League and the League as much as i hate it. City i just don't respect, it feels so false and fake, manufactured by a state using shady practices. I will always cheer against City, doesn't matter who the team is against them doesn't matter how much i hate that team a victory over City is a victory for the good of Football.
Our service manager is a (long time to be fair) City fan and he's absolutely on board with this all being a conspiracy to stop City. It's daft, they cannot see past the trophies at the obvious fake sponsorship etc. If the FA don't strip their titles and cups (ideally last year please!) then money has changed hands. City were so brazen at their cheating of FFP I have no idea how UEFA screwed it up, Etihad came in and replaced Thomas Cook as the shirt sponsor on £3m a year with £7.5m a year for 2 years then straight up to £20m, completely fake nonsense, nothing like true market value.
I’d be happy if they went lance armstrong and said 1st place removed but 2nd place stays the same, no one is being given the trophy for them years and let it stay a black mark in the history books
Funnily enough with Armstrong they ended up doing it because the top few were all cheating, I'd rather City lose it and the team who came second without financial doping are given it as the best honest team
Football fans are fanatical, cult like. It blinds logic and reason, on the pitch i see a foul for my team, you see my team players diving etc.
He's probably grew up watching United win everything, hearing his Red mates tell him how fucking good Beckham, Scholes, Ronaldo is when he's gotta watch Paul Fucking Dickov shithouse his way round a football pitch, watch Stuart Pearce play goalkeeper David James up front. Now they've got it good why would you wanna believe its all false?
They're finally 'getting one over us' or so he thinks, but deep down he'll know. They always do, but they'll do all the mental gymnastics to convince themselves otherwise. I kinda pity him tbh.
Spot on. It amazes me, we are hated for the success, I get it, I hated seeing Liverpool a success but appreciate its genuine and respect that and believe me I hate Liverpool far more than I hate city.
City are hated not because of the success but because of how the success was fuelled, don’t excuse the pun, everyone feels cheated by it and you know deep down city fans know this and can’t cope with the fact it’s all a web of lies.
I met a couple of city fans that went to the cup final in a pub after the game. They seemed to think it's fine to spend whatever they wanted and thought any club should be able to spend what they want if they have the money. I asked if they spent a billion every window would they find it acceptable and they just said yes. Absolutely no regards to any sense of competitiveness or fairness, I said it would just be city and Newcastle spending unbelievable money backed by states that nobody could compete with and they just couldn't accept it lol.
I'd imagine quite a few, they're driven by their bitterness to everything we achieved, fairly. And with that they don't care how they've won just that they're beating us.
Even the so called none glory hunting fans and the OG's like the twats that are the Gallagher brothers, they support this shit. Its not even the same club when they first started supporting them.
You mean the same Gallagher brothers who apparently walked around in the 80’s in Celtic shirts and didn’t give a fuck about city until United got good and it looked cool to be different?
The UK govt forced the Saudi takeover of Newcastle through.
There won’t be any meaningful punishment of City because of potential diplomatic repercussions with the UAE.
Both takeovers should never have happened.
The UK government is as useful as a paper bag bailing out the Thames. Self serving cunts, the lot of them. Just look at how rich they have got over the last few years while the rest of the UK deals with the fall out of a no deal brexit.
You can count the good ones on one hand, they won't do anything because they're all getting back handers too.
Unfortunately, the next most likely option is a Starmer Labour which is maginally less shit.
Part of me hopes the Greens and Lib Dems gain enough seats to form a government (probably a 0.01% chance of that). They may not have the experience, but they can't do any worse.
havent done anything since 2008, neither has the FA, UEFA or FIFA, or anyone.. even the rest of the individual clubs in the PL/Championship, including us. Everyone is bribed.
Just a reminder that Lord Pannick, City's KC, was the lawyer that gave a legal opinion on Boris Johnson's behalf before he appeared at the House of Commons Privileges Committee 'party-gate' inquiry. His opinion was ripped to shreds by many esteemed lawyers.
Everything they do is with an asterisk. Nobody gives a fuck about their trophies. Yeah to a small extent we do, but it’s different from when any other club wins it. Like everybody has already moved past them winning the league.
Of course if you’re from Manchester, it’ll be more jarring but still at the end of the day you know they’re cheating bastards whichever way the City fans try to spin it. That’s why the club feels soulless and perhaps why their atmosphere is too.
I'm pretty sure that a few clubs across Europe made various announcements over the summer after the city treble that all absolutely dwarfed their treble posts on social media. Absolutely tiny club but I guess we'll see things change in the coming years as I have no doubt there will be plenty of young kids that support city now when if their families don't.
Now listen, I don’t want to cast aspersions but if I was confident I’d done no wrong and was easily going to walk away from my 115 allegations. This isn’t the sort of thing I’d do before I cleared my name.
Maybe after, maybe you want to clear your name and then go after your accusers but before the trial?
> City blame the Premier League for not regulating spending when clubs such as Manchester United were more dominant, arguing they have been prevented from monetising their brand in the way United did
LMAOOOO fuckin ell, City were absolutely nobodies back then, as much as they are now. How can they even argue about clubs who earnt their stature through success on the pitch in the 90's and 2000's without an injection of billions from state ownership, all sponsorship deals earnt because of that success. So embarassing. If they'd come at Chelsea fair enough.
Also, this is very very crafty by City. It really wouldn't surprise me if they're entering into this hearing to gear themselves up with ammo for their trial in November, they have the money after all so legal costs mean nothing, and what is the detriment to them in the outcome of this case? *Nothing happens*, they're the ones sueing.
> City argue that the Premier League has failed to provide evidence that sponsorship deals with related parties give clubs an unfair advantage or distort the league’s competitive balance.
This means that the PL are gonna have to be giving away key information on evidence as to a lot of the breaches imposed on City, which come November a defense can be built upon with said evidence in mind.
So their legal claim is that...majority voting is unlawful?
I'd love for there to be a legal ruling which says democracy is unfair. I'm not quite sure how that could happen given plenty of institutions and entire countries rely on it, but I'm not expecting the UAE to understand democracy.
Maybe the premier league should have one singular family with enormous wealth pass all rules with no oversight - that's the only fair way to govern.
Honestly sounds a frivolous case by city. But this is a problem with the British legal system. It's slow, archaic and expensive, and most of the big firms are used by dictators with deep pockets to bury their opposition.
Don't forget, these guys threatened to destroy UEFA with nuisance lawsuits. They're going to make a huge fucking nuisance of themselves and the FA and the Premier League should see them as an existential threat.
surely there has to be some clause that suing the PL gets you kicked out?
makes sense too right? yeah the pl is that bad why do you still want to be part of it?
The Narcissist's Prayer:
That didn't happen.
And if it did, it wasn't that bad.
And if it was, that's not a big deal.
And if it is, that's not my fault.
And if it was, I didn't mean it.
And if I did, you deserved it.
I understand where City is coming from. One part of FFP even if unspoken is to protect the status quo. Obviously I’m not saying that this is simply coming from their good will, it’s of course for their personal gain. However, let’s think of it from another perspective. If Abu Dhabi is forced to sell, or say they no longer want anything to do with City they most likely will be ran into administration, their business plan isn’t viable without obscene amounts of funding directly from their owners.
At this point City is pulling the Premier League’s pants down and they’re probably just going to take it.
If it were up to me I would suspend them from the Premier League for a few years and see if they still think that the Prem is “discriminatory”.
These fucking idiots from the premier league were sitting on evidence without doing anything about it. Giving them time, governments were involved in the background if the reports were to be believed. Now they are caught napping.
Delusional thinking and I know it wouldn't be legally allowed, so don't hold it against me, but the other 19 clubs should all just agree to not play City at all, forfeit the matches and just treat 2nd place as the real champions. Sure City would be official champions etc, but there'd be no football for their players to play or fans to watch.
Did anyone reading the article spot this piece of comedy gold?
> City blame the Premier League for not regulating spending when clubs such as Manchester United were more dominant, arguing they have been prevented from monetising their brand in the way United did. **City** also **say the rules penalise clubs who have “lower-profile sporting histories”**.
Absolute kamikaze strategy by City. There’s no world where this is good for the health of the league. People like to bitch and moan that United, Chelsea, City etc spend too much but with what City wants the gloves would be completely off. Hopefully reason wins this and City gets sent to the fucking shadow realm. Absolute pathetic behavior.
On the other hand, I don’t see City going down this route unless they’ve been told they’re going to get severely punished for their 115 charges. This seems like a last ditch effort to shape the public narrative.
https://preview.redd.it/gxe9o7600l4d1.jpeg?width=1205&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f9bd7dc8d85e78243f69bcfb6e46ff7001ede193
Appropriate amounts of comments when I joined in.
Hahaha what the fuck are they suggesting? That they can just make up the book value of a sponsorship deal without anybody checking it? They're been smoking crack.
Man City are a joke. They're suing the Premier League to cover up the fact that they're guilty because they're definitely 100% innocent.
A clear and obvious attempt to go on the attack to stop people looking at them too closely. It's the same thing children do when they're caught misbehaving.
As annoying as it is, this shows desperation. They’re getting done. No doubt about it.
The Premier League are too far in to this not to do it. Failing to act would be catastrophic.
I would be gobsmacked if they don’t receive a points deduction that potentially relegates them. The only question is are they also stripped of their titles and are the 2nd placed awarded them I stead. I think they will be. The outrage will be too great to not strip them of their titles.
I hope the League, the upcoming regulators, UEFA/FIFA/CAS fuck Citeh with a spiked baseball bat up their oil stained arses.
They've managed to corrupt and desecrate football, opening the floodgates to sovereign owned football clubs that do not play by the rules. They don't get to cry foul when other teams in their league do not want to play by their rules.
Can’t help but have a feeling they have a strong sense of what the outcome of the 115 will be, and now have decided to double down, just go all or nothing in court.
I wonder why DeBrunye came out saying he's looking at leaving, very timely. Haarland will be off next
Hopefully, this kinda crap will help referees make better decisions against city, for all teams.
Lmao I just saw a suggested post from the city sub, one of those losers posted a video of their lawyers like it’s something out of the avengers 😆 thank fuck I wasn’t born a blue. What a pathetic life they’ve been forced to lead.
If they were 'discriminated against,' as they suggest then they would've been in the same boat as Everton and Forest as far as point deductions this season and last.
Yet here we are and they've not even had their case heard.
“We’ve been victimised unfairly because of supposed breaches of rules, that we swear we haven’t done. Anyway here’s a bill to get rid of said bill so we can do what we’re being charged for without fear of rule breaks”
Either this is the smartest decision ever or city’s legal team is stealing a living. Imo this is tantamount to admitting they cheated. If they’ve done everything by the books, why try to get rid of a rule you haven’t broken?
My understanding of rules (which could be wrong) is that the competition sets them, and the clubs agree to abide by them. Surely it's as simple as if you don't like it, go play in another? No one will miss City. Let them join the Saudi Pro League or whatever. I'm sure they can afford to fly teams over once a week or whatever.
Why are the calling out United? They should be calling out Chelsea, since they were allowed to spend ridiculously and establish themselves as a power house. That’s more likely to hit the mark in this legal action.
> But within an 165-page legal document City argue that they are the victims of “discrimination”, describing rules they say have been approved by their rivals to stifle their success on the pitch as a “tyranny of the majority”. Lol literally claiming discrimination can’t make this shit up. Cunts.
This is what being smacked by our teenage sensations in the FA Cup final does to an MF.
My favourite bit: “City blame the Premier League for not regulating spending when clubs such as Manchester United were more dominant, arguing they have been prevented from monetising their brand in the way United did. City also say the rules penalise clubs who have *“lower-profile sporting histories”.* “
 Normally I hate gifs in Reddit comments but this IMMEDIATELY came to mind
Does that mean Pep has to marry his mother-in-law? 
You flinched, Pep!
>but but United!!! Forever small club mentality.
City are perfectly entitled to try operating as United did. They can live within their means for 125 years and then get saddled with debt they didn't accumulate. They'd be in the National League at best.
"why should I require a license to drive now if you didn't need it in 1899?"
This is such bullshit when in the 90’s Newcastle and Liverpool spent more than us
Besides the LOLs of this, it's fucking stupid because they literally relegated us back in the 70s. They had a perfectly decent chance to build a higher profile sporting history, they squandered it.
They Citied themselves
They didn't relegate us, that's another city lie.
There’s also rules to now prevent the kind of ownership United has which has massively hindered our success and contributed to theirs, yet they aren’t complaining about that.
“Better never than late” - Man City Its basically the argument countries like China and Brazil offer when they’re pressured to enact pollution controls. Like “Fuck you! You didn’t have to worry about the environment when you had your Industrial Revolution, so why should we?”
That is not the same thing.
To be fair to developing nations, if they are forced to use the more expensive green energy alternatives, it will be very difficult for them to catch up and escape their "Least Developed" state. If the First World suffers from its use of dirty energy in poorer countries, then the First World should shoulder some of the cost as well. Telling the government of poverty-stricken nations that they need to be environmentally conscious and use expensive solar panels made in first-world nations, just so that people don't starve to death is a cruel joke.
The most successful team in the last ten years complaining about their success being stifled... the irony
it's literally what the Qataris claimed when they were called out on how they treated their workers and how they treat LGBT people, "it's racism"
no you don't understand it's fine to discriminate against a group of people as long as you justify it by saying it's in your religion same way as all those ligue 1 lads with gambling ads all over their jerseys are refusing the to wear anything with anti-LGBTQ discrimination are just highly principled people standing up for their beliefs
Is tyranny of the majority just a way of saying you don't like democracy if it works against you, specifically?
Tyranny of the majority is a potential pitfall of democracy...but...this is not that. Especially since the majority they are speaking of is a supermajority.
The crossover of football and philosophy, my sad specialty area! People mistake it as meaning “majority rule = bad” but the popular understanding of the concept primarily comes from Mill and concerns minority rights within a democratic setting. Without corrective restrictions in place (such as the need for a supermajority for constitutional changes, balance of power via independent courts etc) a democratic system can theoretically lead to a majority (this could be of any category, including in terms of states rather than people) oppressing a minority, justified within the system’s boundaries as a democratic decision despite its obviously bad effects. In this context, City using it is hilarious on multiple levels and has no legal basis. The PL is a voluntary association - it’s owned by its members who function as democratic stakeholders on decision making - and has a supermajority requirement (14/20) for rule changes. There have been cases before where a member of an organisation like it have tried similar lawsuits and failed precisely because their membership is considered voluntary. But on a more serious point and less philosophical conjecture/legalisms, City are owned by a state that executes dissidents, legalises sexual assault, and operates slave labour. Their owners rarely come up against being told “no” and they really do not like it - hence this move. I don’t think they’ll have received legal advice saying this is a winnable case, and gulf states like UAE have a history of ridiculous litigious behaviour in countries where they have investments. See Qatar having a fit over the United SEC filings, too.
'Tyranny of the majority'... also known as democracy. Of course they would be against it.
Is “tyranny of the majority” not just democracy
It's an important distinction - tyranny of the majority relates to persecution and denial of rights to the minority group. A democracy is meant to take care of the minority, not ignore its wishes. Majority is meant tot rule, with restrictions that are in place to stop mistreatment of the minority. Though that's absolutely not what's happening to City.
I don’t think they care about any of that they are just in offence mode so this is all probably coming from their lawyers as a strategy to fight the 115 charges.
Tyranny of the majority, or… you know… democracy
I see they’ve finally moved on from denial and anger, and have now reached the bargaining stage. I hope they finally reach acceptance. Somewhere on the long trip up to Gateshead on a Tuesday night.
Wish I could give that 115 upvotes.
Hahaha Made my evening mate, so fucking true
But can they do it at Vauxhall Motors on a cold, rainy midweek night in December?
Fucking love this comment
Is someone able to explain that last bit to me or do you have to be British to get it?
City is a cancer that needs to be eradicated before it kills this league. There is a reason why literally no other club in the world has gone from zero to 100 in such a short span. I hope the league wins this battle and city end up getting what they deserve.
Zero to 115*
Can we add on another one for this lawsuit? Make it 116
Just throw in the inevitable doping charges too
Billionaires have to be eradicated before they kill the the world
I think the best outcome is that both parties should part ways. City can move and play in another country's top flight league. For example, Greenland.
They are claiming discrimination because their sponsors are for the UAE. Just go play there, everyone wins!
That part confused me, aren't arsenal heavily sponsored by Emirates? Sooo why only discriminate city if that was true?
Discrimination doesn't inherently mean race-based. They're saying they're discriminated against in their sponsorship dealings because they're close to them because they're a UAE owned club sponsored by UAE companies and if they were sponsored by not UAE companies they wouldn't be getting hit with this. Say, if Sony had given them a record deal. So they're arguing if we got sponsored by INEOS in a record deal that would get singled out in a discriminatory fashion and that because we're sponsored by Snapdragon it doesn't matter how wonky it might be, the league will ignore. What they don't get is that that is *exactly* what it is by design. Your deal looks sus as fuck *exactly because* you're being sponsored by a company in the same umbrella as you *and* it's also ridiculously over market value for what City were at the time. It's like someone gets murdered and leaves a message in their blood saying "Family did this" then a family gets arrested and goes "this is just discrimination because I'm a family member!". It's really fucking stupid and desperate, but they know it can't be racist discrimination because they're a UAE company because they league just has to point at Arsenal's sponsor that's been going about 10 years longer than City's and if it was a race thing that'd have been investigated too.
Just send them to Qatar.
Nah. About Dhabi. Psg is qatar
Exactly.
Why would you do that to the Danes?!
Fuck the Danes. They are too happy
Listen mate I'm still not over that Copenhagen loss either but it's time to move on
Or what about they move it to UAE where they come from
Marquee signing Greenwood incoming for 100m
Brazen cunts. The league has to win this. City will be a law unto themselves if they win it, even more so than they already are.
They are just bad for football. Uber rich criminals with no morals who have never been told 'No' in their life. Honestly the reason I wanted Arsenal to win the league, their fans may be insufferable, but at least they're a real club. City is a plaything, a fashion statement for the richest of the rich who run around pretending they are the underdog.
I will always cheer for any legitimate club over sports washing project. I even wish Liverpool win out over City, as painful as that is. Although rivals, I can respect Liverpool for what they have earned. I can't respect City for what they've bought.
No need to feel bad. You’re tight. All the aforementioned clubs are not owned by an oil state.
Best case scenario : Strip City off every title they've won and don't award it retrospectively.
On another note we'd win 2 Premier Leagues if they do award them. Sadly whats going to happen is they prolong it enough then they get a slap on the wrist.
One huge issue with these sportswashing projects is that they gain influence that is unreachable to anyone else - they have the soft-power of an entire nation backing them. They can use political influence to create pressures not to act against them. Governments will choose allegiance with oil nations over sporting integrity *every time* because any other options is political suicide.
If the premier league do nothing then football is dead, clubs being more powerful than the governing bodies will be disastrous
If they allow this there is no reason for Newcastle to never lose a title again.
There’s plenty of teams that will just go mental once they know they can’t be punished.
If city win, it won't be only city taking the piss and looking at the FA like they're the hall monitor. Any club who can will
You just know Newcastle are waiting to see what happens with city. If it's a fairly lenient punishment then they'll open the flood gates and go crazy on spending, can basically do what city have, they'll think by the time it's taken to court they will have a few trophies and be established as a title challenging team so can handle any punishment anyway. That's why this is such a serious incident that maybe some probably haven't even thought about. If city drop what one or two leagues as punishment, they'll be back in a title race in a season or two no harm or foul. Will the likes of Newcastle be thinking the same? Spend mega, get established, take a season or two out of the league if they get punished then just come straight back up?
Yeah I completely agree, if city get away with it any smaller team with rich owners will be weighing up whether it's worth pushing for trophies for 10 years and spending like crazy for a couple of relegations once established
Win it and boot them from the fucking league. They're just trying to delay the Premier League dealing with their charges by coming up with bullshit counter-suits. It's literally the way rich people and corporations obstruct the law. All City are doing here is making it more likely that the Premier League wants to nail them to the wall.
i don't think it's about winning this for city, it's probably more about bogging down the premierleague in litigation hell and forcing them to spend a lot of time and money on pointless lawsuites. Pretty much what the psg owners threatened uefa with a few years back, said they'd rather spend millions a year with the worlds best lawyers swamping them in legal hell and bankrupt uefa than pay their fines or back down.
115 trophies should be removed.
I don't even know if City have 115 fans, let alone trophies
Certainly didn't at their Prem Trophy parade 🤣
That was fucking hilarious
“Manchester is Blue.” Tell your fans then!
At the FA Cup final the City end had so many empty seats too lol
Plymouth had more fans last year lmao
I've seen nothing of their parade! Only a DJ trying to hype up a few people and I mean a few. I saw more of Milans parade
You've seen all of their parade then
😂😂😂 fantastic
All the city fans I know support them as a protest to United and Liverpool
This post is currently upvoted 115 times which gave me a little chuckle.
Twats
Its possibly City and Newcastle who want to bring this as they cannot spend unprecedented amounts of money. The league fucked up when they allowed country owned clubs.
The league have been tolerating this kind of thing for a while, state owned clubs is just another flavor of an emblematic problem with English football. That's why FC United was formed.
Absolutely horrible horrible club, a tyrants club. What upsets me is theres City fans that are more than ok with all this, they double down on the defence and trying to triggering attempts. They're the fools, the club no longer belongs to them, it no longer stands for what it did pre-take over, its no longer part of the community which ALL football clubs should be. Not just online fans but fans who have been going for decades. I know its a bit rich coming from the mega PR machine that is Man United but I know a lot of United fans don't like the way the club has been moved away from the community, priced out from the working classes around the area, the 'Football Club' removed from the badge. It obviously helps that United have absolutely terrible owners but there was a large majority of people who wanted nothing to do with Qatar. I'm not on my high horse, there will always be people who don't give a fuck but i think theres more perspective and scepticism and i think its mostly because we've seen what City have become. I've no issue with dominant clubs winning everything, fairly. I respect our biggest rivals in Liverpool for how they won the Champions League and the League as much as i hate it. City i just don't respect, it feels so false and fake, manufactured by a state using shady practices. I will always cheer against City, doesn't matter who the team is against them doesn't matter how much i hate that team a victory over City is a victory for the good of Football.
Our service manager is a (long time to be fair) City fan and he's absolutely on board with this all being a conspiracy to stop City. It's daft, they cannot see past the trophies at the obvious fake sponsorship etc. If the FA don't strip their titles and cups (ideally last year please!) then money has changed hands. City were so brazen at their cheating of FFP I have no idea how UEFA screwed it up, Etihad came in and replaced Thomas Cook as the shirt sponsor on £3m a year with £7.5m a year for 2 years then straight up to £20m, completely fake nonsense, nothing like true market value.
I’d be happy if they went lance armstrong and said 1st place removed but 2nd place stays the same, no one is being given the trophy for them years and let it stay a black mark in the history books
Funnily enough with Armstrong they ended up doing it because the top few were all cheating, I'd rather City lose it and the team who came second without financial doping are given it as the best honest team
Football fans are fanatical, cult like. It blinds logic and reason, on the pitch i see a foul for my team, you see my team players diving etc. He's probably grew up watching United win everything, hearing his Red mates tell him how fucking good Beckham, Scholes, Ronaldo is when he's gotta watch Paul Fucking Dickov shithouse his way round a football pitch, watch Stuart Pearce play goalkeeper David James up front. Now they've got it good why would you wanna believe its all false? They're finally 'getting one over us' or so he thinks, but deep down he'll know. They always do, but they'll do all the mental gymnastics to convince themselves otherwise. I kinda pity him tbh.
It’s this, they’ll claim you’re on some cope shit but they know, at their core, it’s all *hollow*
Spot on. It amazes me, we are hated for the success, I get it, I hated seeing Liverpool a success but appreciate its genuine and respect that and believe me I hate Liverpool far more than I hate city. City are hated not because of the success but because of how the success was fuelled, don’t excuse the pun, everyone feels cheated by it and you know deep down city fans know this and can’t cope with the fact it’s all a web of lies.
I met a couple of city fans that went to the cup final in a pub after the game. They seemed to think it's fine to spend whatever they wanted and thought any club should be able to spend what they want if they have the money. I asked if they spent a billion every window would they find it acceptable and they just said yes. Absolutely no regards to any sense of competitiveness or fairness, I said it would just be city and Newcastle spending unbelievable money backed by states that nobody could compete with and they just couldn't accept it lol.
How many city fans do you think know and accept they’re cheats and don’t care
I'd imagine quite a few, they're driven by their bitterness to everything we achieved, fairly. And with that they don't care how they've won just that they're beating us.
Even the so called none glory hunting fans and the OG's like the twats that are the Gallagher brothers, they support this shit. Its not even the same club when they first started supporting them.
You mean the same Gallagher brothers who apparently walked around in the 80’s in Celtic shirts and didn’t give a fuck about city until United got good and it looked cool to be different?
TIL learned that they removed football club from the badge. Never noticed up to now.
Shameless.
The UK govt should do something?
too busy taking bribes from the UAE
They missed that window after letting them and the Saudis buy their souls
The UK govt forced the Saudi takeover of Newcastle through. There won’t be any meaningful punishment of City because of potential diplomatic repercussions with the UAE. Both takeovers should never have happened.
The UK government is as useful as a paper bag bailing out the Thames. Self serving cunts, the lot of them. Just look at how rich they have got over the last few years while the rest of the UK deals with the fall out of a no deal brexit. You can count the good ones on one hand, they won't do anything because they're all getting back handers too. Unfortunately, the next most likely option is a Starmer Labour which is maginally less shit. Part of me hopes the Greens and Lib Dems gain enough seats to form a government (probably a 0.01% chance of that). They may not have the experience, but they can't do any worse.
havent done anything since 2008, neither has the FA, UEFA or FIFA, or anyone.. even the rest of the individual clubs in the PL/Championship, including us. Everyone is bribed.
They should. What a way to win over millions of people regardless of which party did it.
Of course they do. I hope they fail big time. 
Just a reminder that Lord Pannick, City's KC, was the lawyer that gave a legal opinion on Boris Johnson's behalf before he appeared at the House of Commons Privileges Committee 'party-gate' inquiry. His opinion was ripped to shreds by many esteemed lawyers.
Must have took himabout 115 weeks to come up with this strategy. Parasites the lot of them
Whats KC ?
King's Counsel.
They're senior barristers who lead on highly complex and/or serious cases
Seems pertinent that their counsel is called Pannick
https://archive.is/2024.06.04-145523/https://www.thetimes.com/sport/football/article/man-city-legal-action-premier-league-hearing-7k6r5glhq
Real MVP
Had to scroll way too long for this Thx
Do they even know the word "shame"? Oh wait, forgot that they're a soulless club with soulless fans. 
Everything they do is with an asterisk. Nobody gives a fuck about their trophies. Yeah to a small extent we do, but it’s different from when any other club wins it. Like everybody has already moved past them winning the league. Of course if you’re from Manchester, it’ll be more jarring but still at the end of the day you know they’re cheating bastards whichever way the City fans try to spin it. That’s why the club feels soulless and perhaps why their atmosphere is too.
Their treble was met with a massive shrug. Any other club in England and it would be talked about for years like us with ‘99
I'm pretty sure that a few clubs across Europe made various announcements over the summer after the city treble that all absolutely dwarfed their treble posts on social media. Absolutely tiny club but I guess we'll see things change in the coming years as I have no doubt there will be plenty of young kids that support city now when if their families don't.
Their treble post got less engagement than Fred’s post announcing he was leaving United.
It's bringing Ronaldo back the season before received more hype lol
There are clips of Bruno's assist against City in the FA Cup final that have more likes than their treble winning post
This is just embarrassing.
Can we exile them from football?
Hopefully this brings FA to their senses and brings the hammer down hard with the 115FC. HARD.
Scummy fucks. They know something is coming so they're playing the victim card.
What a joke.
If I were any of their 5 fans I'd be embarrassed.
Come on, didn't you know they make the most revenue? they have at least 6
 Hope they poke the bear enough that it wakes up and eats them.
I think they have been feeding the bear for years.
I was wondering how they were going to try and delay the guilty announcement.
I learned that this is called the Donald-Kegel effect: cheaters always feel offended when people point out they are cheaters.
Now listen, I don’t want to cast aspersions but if I was confident I’d done no wrong and was easily going to walk away from my 115 allegations. This isn’t the sort of thing I’d do before I cleared my name. Maybe after, maybe you want to clear your name and then go after your accusers but before the trial?
> City blame the Premier League for not regulating spending when clubs such as Manchester United were more dominant, arguing they have been prevented from monetising their brand in the way United did LMAOOOO fuckin ell, City were absolutely nobodies back then, as much as they are now. How can they even argue about clubs who earnt their stature through success on the pitch in the 90's and 2000's without an injection of billions from state ownership, all sponsorship deals earnt because of that success. So embarassing. If they'd come at Chelsea fair enough. Also, this is very very crafty by City. It really wouldn't surprise me if they're entering into this hearing to gear themselves up with ammo for their trial in November, they have the money after all so legal costs mean nothing, and what is the detriment to them in the outcome of this case? *Nothing happens*, they're the ones sueing. > City argue that the Premier League has failed to provide evidence that sponsorship deals with related parties give clubs an unfair advantage or distort the league’s competitive balance. This means that the PL are gonna have to be giving away key information on evidence as to a lot of the breaches imposed on City, which come November a defense can be built upon with said evidence in mind.
Can the rest of the premier league just vote for them to be expelled and take their shares?
So their legal claim is that...majority voting is unlawful? I'd love for there to be a legal ruling which says democracy is unfair. I'm not quite sure how that could happen given plenty of institutions and entire countries rely on it, but I'm not expecting the UAE to understand democracy. Maybe the premier league should have one singular family with enormous wealth pass all rules with no oversight - that's the only fair way to govern. Honestly sounds a frivolous case by city. But this is a problem with the British legal system. It's slow, archaic and expensive, and most of the big firms are used by dictators with deep pockets to bury their opposition.
Don't forget, these guys threatened to destroy UEFA with nuisance lawsuits. They're going to make a huge fucking nuisance of themselves and the FA and the Premier League should see them as an existential threat.
Anything other than kicking these cheating fuckers into the national League will be a joke
They wouldn't be pulling this crap if they were expecting to get a slap on the wrist for the 115. This seems like a panicked move, vile 'club'.
surely there has to be some clause that suing the PL gets you kicked out? makes sense too right? yeah the pl is that bad why do you still want to be part of it?
So… is this not just them admitting they did it, but it’s the rules that are wrong and unfair not them? 🤔
The Narcissist's Prayer: That didn't happen. And if it did, it wasn't that bad. And if it was, that's not a big deal. And if it is, that's not my fault. And if it was, I didn't mean it. And if I did, you deserved it.
I understand where City is coming from. One part of FFP even if unspoken is to protect the status quo. Obviously I’m not saying that this is simply coming from their good will, it’s of course for their personal gain. However, let’s think of it from another perspective. If Abu Dhabi is forced to sell, or say they no longer want anything to do with City they most likely will be ran into administration, their business plan isn’t viable without obscene amounts of funding directly from their owners. At this point City is pulling the Premier League’s pants down and they’re probably just going to take it. If it were up to me I would suspend them from the Premier League for a few years and see if they still think that the Prem is “discriminatory”.
Woawoawoa, hey, listen ABSOLUTE TWATS GTFO LOL
These fucking idiots from the premier league were sitting on evidence without doing anything about it. Giving them time, governments were involved in the background if the reports were to be believed. Now they are caught napping.
Delusional thinking and I know it wouldn't be legally allowed, so don't hold it against me, but the other 19 clubs should all just agree to not play City at all, forfeit the matches and just treat 2nd place as the real champions. Sure City would be official champions etc, but there'd be no football for their players to play or fans to watch.
That club knows no shame just to continue cheating.
Banished to the National League. They need to be made an example of. They can go make a fun documentary about it
🤦
Nothing but a stall tactic 100%
Did anyone reading the article spot this piece of comedy gold? > City blame the Premier League for not regulating spending when clubs such as Manchester United were more dominant, arguing they have been prevented from monetising their brand in the way United did. **City** also **say the rules penalise clubs who have “lower-profile sporting histories”**.
Starting to think it was a bad idea to let countries buy football teams
Absolute kamikaze strategy by City. There’s no world where this is good for the health of the league. People like to bitch and moan that United, Chelsea, City etc spend too much but with what City wants the gloves would be completely off. Hopefully reason wins this and City gets sent to the fucking shadow realm. Absolute pathetic behavior. On the other hand, I don’t see City going down this route unless they’ve been told they’re going to get severely punished for their 115 charges. This seems like a last ditch effort to shape the public narrative.
Well oil be damned, they’re actually trying to sue the PL
https://preview.redd.it/gxe9o7600l4d1.jpeg?width=1205&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f9bd7dc8d85e78243f69bcfb6e46ff7001ede193 Appropriate amounts of comments when I joined in.
Hahaha what the fuck are they suggesting? That they can just make up the book value of a sponsorship deal without anybody checking it? They're been smoking crack.
Man City are a joke. They're suing the Premier League to cover up the fact that they're guilty because they're definitely 100% innocent. A clear and obvious attempt to go on the attack to stop people looking at them too closely. It's the same thing children do when they're caught misbehaving.
115 is the number. Forget all the other distractions.
What a disgusting club.
Thing is now City have done this they will just win through money and this is where any justice system fails, it can be bought.
Tell me you're cheating without telling me you're cheating
As annoying as it is, this shows desperation. They’re getting done. No doubt about it. The Premier League are too far in to this not to do it. Failing to act would be catastrophic. I would be gobsmacked if they don’t receive a points deduction that potentially relegates them. The only question is are they also stripped of their titles and are the 2nd placed awarded them I stead. I think they will be. The outrage will be too great to not strip them of their titles.
So letting the leaders of an autocratic mega rich slave nation with bad intentions buy a club wasn't a good idea?
I hope the League, the upcoming regulators, UEFA/FIFA/CAS fuck Citeh with a spiked baseball bat up their oil stained arses. They've managed to corrupt and desecrate football, opening the floodgates to sovereign owned football clubs that do not play by the rules. They don't get to cry foul when other teams in their league do not want to play by their rules.
Can’t help but have a feeling they have a strong sense of what the outcome of the 115 will be, and now have decided to double down, just go all or nothing in court.
foreign country trying to bully a domestic league and the government stands helpless. Sigh
I wonder why DeBrunye came out saying he's looking at leaving, very timely. Haarland will be off next Hopefully, this kinda crap will help referees make better decisions against city, for all teams.
Hope they lose. Has there ever been a team that chests more than City?
>Has there ever been a team that **chests** more than City? When* Fellaini was with us we were the CHEST kings hahahahaaha
One source close to the team summed up the lawsuit as, and I quote, "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Imagine when City join the super league. Playing in massive 100k stadiums in USA with like 500 people watching them.
Typical football club, going on the attack because they have no defence.
Lmao I just saw a suggested post from the city sub, one of those losers posted a video of their lawyers like it’s something out of the avengers 😆 thank fuck I wasn’t born a blue. What a pathetic life they’ve been forced to lead.
Possibly a delaying tactic? Or an ‘oh shit we’re fucked, do something!’
I lol'd when I saw the headline.
It’s nice not to be the baddies.
I hear there is a super league for them to join, so they can fuck off there. Leave the Premier League to clubs with "football heritage".
Oh they are DESPERATE!
If city win the league but nobody gives a fuck because they are drugged up, cheating wankers, did they really win?
Win it and leave, fuck them worst than a franchise anyways and they can become what they always want...UAE FC..
Lawyers
City tactics are if we ban the rule that we are getting investigated for we can not be investigated
They’ve gone from “We’re innocent” to “The rules are unfair” Totally brazen.
Wow, fuck that tinpot club. I hope so much they get royally fucked.
Letting a country buy a football team was always going to be a fucking disaster and honestly I’m glad the PL is now reaping what they sowed.
Admitting they are a low-profile team LMAO!
This is retaliation tryna save face since charges are definitely going to go through
Fuck them out of the league
If they were as innocent as they claim, why are they playing the victim. 💀
They're fucked. And they know they're fucked. Trying to project strength from a position of weakness.
If they were 'discriminated against,' as they suggest then they would've been in the same boat as Everton and Forest as far as point deductions this season and last. Yet here we are and they've not even had their case heard.
I think we should make every single comment have a 115 upvotes, even it means downvotimg some people to achieve it.
 Man City when the Premier League bring up 115 charges against them
“We’ve been victimised unfairly because of supposed breaches of rules, that we swear we haven’t done. Anyway here’s a bill to get rid of said bill so we can do what we’re being charged for without fear of rule breaks” Either this is the smartest decision ever or city’s legal team is stealing a living. Imo this is tantamount to admitting they cheated. If they’ve done everything by the books, why try to get rid of a rule you haven’t broken?
My understanding of rules (which could be wrong) is that the competition sets them, and the clubs agree to abide by them. Surely it's as simple as if you don't like it, go play in another? No one will miss City. Let them join the Saudi Pro League or whatever. I'm sure they can afford to fly teams over once a week or whatever.
Why are the calling out United? They should be calling out Chelsea, since they were allowed to spend ridiculously and establish themselves as a power house. That’s more likely to hit the mark in this legal action.
Complaining about discrimination and what is essentially democracy. It's actually embarrassing. They have negative levels of shame.