Infantino had his icarus moment. Several FIFA executives went against him, finally. The AFC joining UEFA and CONCACAF was the nail in the coffin to his little grift - he wouldn’t have had the votes anyway, so he now says “after listening to eveyone we have decided to stop”. Yeah right.
He was all set to run for president unopposed next year, now there is almost certainly going to be a battle, Good - he can fuck right off. Still worrying how bandwagony the whole thing looked. CONMEBOL the spineless turds that they are gave a shitty response, too little too late, and surprising no one.
It is very rare for the conclusion to be redacted. Also, this is a summary of findings and not the actual final document that may be only privvy to certain eyes. It’s also very interesting that all of the witnesses and documents brought forward by City were dismissed or not considered. Be very interesting to know who was on the panel.
There is a lot in there that can be challenged to a higher court, so this will have legs. What amazes me is how sloppy the core decision is written. However, the City higher ups are in a lot of trouble and could have their Fit and Proper status removed but I am not sure if there has been precedent for this. Ultimately, they own the assets and if they were to be forced out the PL cannot force them to sell to a buyer of their choice for a price of their choosing. Same with the players and I know that people have already picked destinations for players to go to.
Either way the PL should have announced its proposed sanctions when they released this. The cloud over this season now that they have shared their core decision will hang low. They are well within their rights to announce their sanctions and then have these come into the appeal process. Although checking in on the Everton and Forest cases sanctions were only announced after the appeal process. Essentially that should conclude 12 weeks from Friday which is Christmas Day. If they stick to that at least the public won’t have to see this drag into 2027 but the chances of that happening in a case of this magnitude is unlikely.
The other thing that is abundantly clear from this document is that the way the rules are written it has a strong anti-competitive bias. A lot is said here about certain clubs having to balance their books but no mention of larger corporate entities having to do the same. For example, United carrying a billion-pound debt and having to take out additional loans to meet payroll, etc. but clubs like Villa, Newcastle, etc. having to sell all of their best players to meet the PSR guidelines.
Anyway, it’s fascinating and if the PL do this well it could be a great reset of a very corrupt game.
What is interesting is that the bylaws state that a club that is expelled from the PL/EFL would have to apply to be reinstated and if you look at the situation with Bury as an example then they’d be in the 10th step and into the North West Counties League (probably North division) and would play against the likes of Maine Road (and there’s your dose of irony for the day).
You hear people saying that the players still did it on the pitch etc etc, you can’t take that away… Well yeah they did but the deals were financed from dodgy practices against the rules that I assume they signed up to.
My insignificant opinion is that this is the extreme end of a problem 30 odd years in the making. Let’s face it the PL wasn’t established for altruistic reasons in the first place and everyone wants the CREAM.
Their only available appeal is to the Premier League as far as I know.
They have lied and cheated the sport, bullied and threatened journalists all whilst expecting the rest of the watching world to believe their warped fairytale.
It says that but it also doesn’t say how they were deemed to be untrue. I really want to see the appendices. Also interesting to see if or possibly when criminal investigations/sanctions may be brought forward.
The closest we have to this is the Ibramovich situation at Chelsea which went like this:
Premier League Disqualification: On March 12, 2022, the Premier League Board formally disqualified Abramovich as a director of Chelsea Football Club.
Complete Sale: With government oversight, the club was eventually sold in May 2022 to BlueCo—a consortium led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital—effectively ending Abramovich’s 19-year ownership. Abramovich received no proceeds from the multi-billion-dollar sale, as the funds were directed into a frozen account intended for charitable causes supporting victims of the war.
Would need the government to intervene.
Either way the Premier League has changed, and if the PL simply fine City or give them a points deduction (of say 30 points) that may make it almost certain that they will survive then I can only see this blowing up even further but what is going to appease the public? The complete insolvency of the football club?
So put them into NW Counties League (should they accept them), force the owners to sell. Let’s say all of that happens then I wonder what would happen with the Etihad, go back to being an athletics track? There isn’t a club near East Manchester big enough to buy it/repurpose it. Obviously, this would also mean that the Women’s Team would become insolvent as well.
