In Manchester in late winter and early spring, it is normal to have ten rains a day.
On the evening of February 6, the atmosphere in each bar was completely different: the red crowd celebrated with a bang, because the "noisy neighbors" looked like they were going to be out of luck; The blue crowd had gloomy faces and worried moods.
The official Premier League announcement on this day is a rare direct reference to Manchester City, which have won six Premier League titles in the past 11 seasons, and the investigation confirmed that it has repeatedly violated financial rules in several years and will wait for a follow-up decision.
What happens to the worst?
Guardiola left, Haaland, De Bruyne, Rodri, B seats scattered, most of them were bought by other giants at low prices... Numerous league titles were revoked, and other clubs, because of the "loss of interests" in the corresponding period, filed affiliated lawsuits against Manchester City FC... Foden and Lewis, as local teenagers "cultivated by the team", insisted on fighting in the English League One and vowed to lead the "Blue Moon" to kill back...
However, the club's finances collapsed, Abu Dhabi was forced by all parties to transfer the club's equity, and after the American owner took over, he found that in the third division with an average weekly salary of hundreds of pounds, it was impossible to accept the remaining players of Manchester City with a weekly salary of hundreds of thousands of pounds... People's hearts float, stars and birds scatter...
A spring dream, this is the worst scenario for Manchester City after being punished by the Premier League.
Pep Guardiola eloquently said two years ago: "I asked them about it, and if they lied to me and lied to me, then I would leave immediately. They will no longer be my friends. Pep Guardiola replied that when Manchester City were investigated and sanctioned by UEFA, the media asked him whether there were any financial irregularities at Manchester City. On the surface, at least, Guardiola insists on believing in the innocence of his "friends."
These "friends", closest to him, are, of course, Manchester City's current CEO Soriano, football director Begiristan and City Football Group COO Omar. These guys all have Barça backgrounds.
The big battle between the Premier League and Manchester City has already begun. Manchester City have their army of top lawyers, and UEFA has been a loser. However, the Premier League's investigation, which took 4 years over 14 seasons, is more substantial, less restrictive and less restrictive than the UEFA investigation.
▲ From left to right, they are Begiristan , Mubarak (club president), Soriano and Guardiola
The Premier League declares war on Manchester City
This will surely be the biggest challenge the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund has faced in its 14 years at the helm of Manchester City.
Ferran Soriano, the club's CEO and CEO of City Group, has rarely been interviewed, having previously served as Barça vice-president and has an excellent relationship with Pep Guardiola. That's why Guardiola always goes out of his way to defend the club every time he faces relevant questions. The answer at the press conference on May 7, 2022 was sonorous, but it left no room for it.
If everything is so simple and clear and Manchester City are confirmed to have serious financial irregularities, Guardiola will have to leave, which is obviously a huge blow to Manchester City FC, but it may only be the beginning of a series of huge blows: in the worst case, the previous league title, because it occurred during the financial irregularity, may also be cancelled, although this probability is extremely low; But Guardiola's departure, after which all the club's financial actions will be closely monitored for a long time, and many vested interests will also leave.
Manchester City's relegation is not an impossible scenario. Look at Juventus.
The city's brief reply revealed contempt and extreme anger. The Premier League declared war on Manchester City, and Manchester City had to respond with composure. Manchester City also has a layer of anger because of the recent loud noise in British politics demanding greater regulation of professional football, and the Premier League committee is the most annoying to the government and outside supervision. Isn't the muscles of Manchester City a sign of industry self-regulation? ——We don't need others to take care of it, and we can strictly self-discipline and self-examination.
Manchester City also have their own confidence. If club managers and their sky-high lawyers can beat UEFA, why can't they beat the Premier League?
At 1 p.m. GMT on Feb. 10, it will be Pep Guardiola's regular press conference, which will be a high-profile public dialogue.
There are two weeks left for Manchester City
At present, Manchester City may suffer heavy penalties from the Premier League due to long-term financial irregularities. However, whether the penalty will be a fine, penalty or outright relegation remains to be appealed by Manchester City until February 23.
For all Premier League clubs, this seismic news has huge collateral effects. Everyone is expecting results before the end of the 2022-23 season, but appeals and various operations may take a long time and may not be available within this season.
Although the investigation is very low-key, the British media know that the Premier League Committee's investigation of Manchester City has been going on for four years, and mainly through unrelated third parties - during this period, the Premier League CEO has changed, but the investigation has not been reduced. The investigation focused on two main areas: a sponsorship deal to obtain additional funding from the club's owners, and a "shadow contract" with former manager Roberto Mancini. There have also been numerous allegations that Manchester City have not cooperated with the investigation.
In fact, a few years ago, Portuguese hacker Rui Pinto covered it in the "Football Leaks" document, which was relayed in detail on the website of the German magazine Der Spiegel. UEFA also accused Manchester City of violating the Financial Fair Play Policy (FFP) and issued a penalty banning Manchester City from qualifying for European competition for two years, but it was finally turned around by Manchester City's legal team in 2020 and rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The Premier League's in-depth investigation of Manchester City is closely related to these allegations.
The charges were filed and Manchester City were notified that the Premier League had left the club a chance to appeal, with a deadline of 23 February. The corresponding hearing committee has been formed and Murray Rosen (KC, Solicitor-Royal), chairman of the Premier League Judiciary Committee, will appoint three to the committee.
▲ Murray Rosen's current identity is controversial, he is an Arsenal fan
Mancini "Yin Yang Contract"
A deadline for appeals has been given, but there is no timetable for the hearing. The rest of the Premier League are hoping for results before the end of the season. City will certainly appeal to the committee appointed by Rosen, but as this is an internal Premier League investigation, there is no appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) under Premier League rules – the case of Manchester City's defeat of UEFA two years ago with a strong team of international lawyers may be difficult to replicate.
Between former manager Mancini and Manchester City, there is obviously a "yin and yang contract", but both contracts are valid, so Mancini's income in Manchester City is obviously higher than the "yang contract" on the surface.
Documents published by Der Spiegel show that during the 2009-13 season, when Mancini was Manchester City manager, in addition to the "Yang contract" with Manchester City club, he also had a "negative contract" with Abu Dhabi-based club Al Jazira - what the British media called a "shadow contract" - and received secret payments.
Mancini's first contract with Manchester City at the time, £1.45 million after base payroll tax, but his company in Italy, as an adviser to Al Jazira, was also paid £1.75 million a year, with a comical clause in the contract: a commitment to work four days a year at the club.
Some of the emails exposed by Der Spiegel showed Mancini's company, Italy International Services (IIS), issuing quarterly invoices to Manchester City, who remitted the money to Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) – owned by City club Sheikh Mansour – and then handed the invoice to Al Jazira to execute the payment. The deal was a deal for Simon Pierce, then Manchester City director.
Other specific contract terms include £4 million to win Roberto Mancini in the Premier League and £3 million to win the Champions League, eight flights a year between Manchester and Italy, £7,500 a month for accommodation and six tickets per home game.
Mancini previously declined to comment on all relevant content.
Inflating sponsorship revenue
Evading financial fair competition policy constraints by inflating the amount of sponsorship revenue is the main incriminating evidence against Manchester City before UEFA, which reads: "exaggerating its club sponsorship income and the club's break-even information submitted to UEFA between 2012 and 2016". The amount involved amounted to tens of millions of pounds.
However, the reason for the ban was overturned by the CAS was that the Manchester City lawyers convinced CAS – that some of the alleged offences had passed the prosecution period – that UEFA's FFP policy had a self-restraint statute of limitations – or that some relevant incriminating evidence was not very well founded.
However, unlike the UEFA investigation, the Premier League investigation is time-barred. When it comes to inflating sponsorship revenue figures, this is what Wenger referred to as "Financial Doping" years ago, pointing explicitly to Manchester City's main sponsor Etihad Airways and telecommunications company Etisalat. The inflated amounts alleged to have come from the ADUG agency controlled by Chief Mansour.
The CAS judgment two years ago, overturning UEFA's two-year European ban on Manchester City, ruled that Etisalat's payment claim was out of time and that "any alleged misconduct by the club in respect of the Etihad Airways payment is partially out of the time limit". ”
Although the Premier League investigation did not release the relevant content, it was mentioned in the "Football Reveals" that ADUG also paid at least 4 million euros in commissions between 2010 and 2015 to the agent of former Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure, Seluk, even though Toure was already playing for Manchester City at the time. The payment was approved by club CEO Ferran Soriano and chairman Hosni Mubarak.
The Manchester City club responded to the allegations in a brief statement of just 79 words, saying it "welcomes an investigation", denying any wrongdoing and insisting that the allegations against the club were based on emails "taken out of context" that had been stolen by hackers.
4 years of investigation
Why did this Premier League investigation take so long? In addition to complex documents involving a large number of allegations, Manchester City's delaying tactics have made the investigation extremely difficult. Some tactics were used to procrastinate when they had to hand over their documents.
Two years after the inquiry began, the tribunal ordered City to provide "certain documents and information and enquiries to third parties" to the Premier League Commission, but "the strategy adopted by the City club is to make as many procedural applications and complaints as possible in order to delay time." ”
City also appointed a heavyweight legal team to defend them, led by Lord Pannick.
The outside world does not know about this investigation, because the Premier League has been keen to investigate behind closed doors in order to protect the reputation of the league, and Manchester City FC naturally does not express anything to the outside world. Both parties applied for confidentiality of the High Court's arbitration proceedings, but were refused.
Finally, let's look at the results of the official 4 years of work in the Premier League:
The Premier League has accused Manchester City of breaching 115 rules over the past 14 seasons, with City facing a total of 115 charges in five groups:
Group 1, 50 violations
Issue: To provide accurate financial information in the best faith that gives a true and fair picture of the financial position of the Club, in particular information about its revenues (including sponsorship revenue), affiliates and operating costs.
Seasons involved:
From the 2009-13 season, there were 5 violations per season
From the 2013-18 season, there were 6 violations per season
Group 2, 24 violations
Question involved: Provide details of manager (coach) and player compensation.
Seasons involved:
Manager (coach) salary, from 2009-13 season, 12 violations
Player remuneration, from the 2010-16 season, 12 violations
Group 3, 5 violations
Involved: Premier League rules require clubs to comply with UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations.
Seasons involved:
From the 2013-18 season, 5 violations
Group 4, 6 violations
Question involved: The profitability and sustainability rules of the Premier League.
Seasons involved:
From the 2015-18 season, 6 violations
Group 5, 30 violations
Question: Rules requiring clubs to cooperate with and assist in Premier League investigations, "including providing documents and information to the Premier League in the best faith".
Seasons involved:
From the 2018-23 season, 6 violations
What will turn out, we can only wait. In the last 30 years, only three of the other corresponding offending clubs in European football have been directly relegated: Marseille in 1994, Juventus in 2006 and Boavista in 2008. As the Premier League that has been recognized as the number one in world football today, how will it finally deal with the relationship with UAE capital this time?