Man City [Now Not] Banned From UCL For 2 years

[SugarRay]

Lineker asking Danny Murphy and Chris Sutton about the City situation is like asking a chicken to explain the theory of relativity


Murphy - ‘I actually hope for the sake of football that City are allowed in Europe and prove themselves to be wronged’

Sutton - ‘PSG’

Lineker must have thought ‘why the fuck do they put these ****s on here with me?’

 

[spursfan77]

From The Athletic today. Delicious reading.

The obvious threat involves the stark possibility that some of their category-A players will wish to leave. Not a mass exodus, perhaps, when City still hold many attractions. But there are players in Pep Guardiola’s squad who are entitled to want a crack at the European Cup and do not wish to have their invitation withheld through no fault of their own. And who can blame them? Of course, those players are going to be wondering whether they want to hang around. Of course, they will be giving serious consideration to moving on.

Every player at City will have ambitions, dreams, targets. It is part of being an elite footballer and those free midweek nights are sure going to feel blank, demoralising in the extreme, when the Champions League anthem is playing elsewhere.

There is a difference, of course, between a footballer who is considering moving on and one who actually has the gumption to go through with it. Let’s also keep in mind that City still have an awful lot in their favour and any club with their wealth will always be in a position of strength. Heck, they might even knock Real Madrid out of the next round and win the damn thing this year. Which would be a considerably better form of protest than booing the Champions League anthem.

All the same, it is easy to understand why City’s supporters must be finding this all very unsettling when it is also threatening to affect their transfer plans for what was supposed to be an extensive summer of recruitment.

Those fans are a stoic bunch, on the whole, particularly the ones who might appreciate the fact that UEFA’s announcement came on the anniversary of the team losing 1-0 to Bury during the season, 1997-98, that ended with the team dropping into the old Second Division (now League One). As crises go, City have endured far worse. At least Guardiola does not have a drinks coaster shaped like a panic button, unlike Joe Royle, the manager who coined the phrase “Cityitis”.

These, however, are emotional times for the modern-day City and, as well as the near-unremitting speculation about Guardiola’s future, it has to be unnerving for the supporters when they are already having to contemplate the fact David Silva is now in his last three months with the club. Silva has worn City’s colours with such distinction one suggestion is that a statue of him, Vincent Kompany and Sergio Aguero should go up on the approach to the stadium.

Now, though, how many of Silva’s team-mates might be wondering, however strong their attachment to City, if there might be better adventures to be had elsewhere?

As difficult as this might be for City’s supporters to contemplate, what does Aguero make of it now he has reached the stage of his career when, even for the greatest players, insecurity can appear on the horizon?

Aguero has achieved many great things in his career but he is yet to experience the sweet-scented night of a Champions League final. He will be 34 when City’s ban expires and, to put it bluntly, time is not on his side. If he doesn’t feel that silver between his fingers this year, can he be blamed for wondering whether it might be time to reassess his options? And could City really take umbrage when this is a mess of their own making?

Aguero is the club’s record scorer, a four-time Premier League winner and a genuine history-maker if you understand why there are so many people in Manchester with “93:20” inked into different parts of their bodies. He has given the club such prodigious service over the past nine seasons he could probably be forgiven for thinking he deserves better. He certainly doesn’t deserve to miss out. None of the players do.

On Friday, just after the announcement from UEFA, City got in touch with all the relevant agents to ask them to stay calm and make sure the players did not say anything on social media. The players were then invited to a meeting at the club today. The club’s message was that they had always suspected there was a ban coming their way and that they were going to give UEFA a heck of a fight, starting with an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. All of which ties in with their public insistence that the evidence in their favour is “irrefutable” and they have suffered a huge injustice.

We will see. The agents are there to look after their players but, let’s be realistic, they can also earn millions in commission by arranging transfers. Raheem Sterling was already being linked with a move to Real Madrid before learning he will have to sit out the Champions League for two years. That speculation will undoubtedly now accelerate. There will also be scrutiny on Kevin De Bruyne at a time in his professional life when he is playing at the point of maximum expression. The Champions League would be weaker without his brilliance.

Nobody can be sure, yet, how this is all going to play out. All that can really be said for certain is that the best players, as a rule, want to play in the best competition. And that, for City, has to be a significant worry when there are people who know Bernardo Silva, for instance, and think it inconceivable that he will accept being out of the Champions League in the two years preceding the defining World Cup of his career.

“Expect players to be brutal, ruthless and act in their own interests,” one agent says. “Even the ones you think are nice.”

Leroy Sane, who was left out of Germany’s last World Cup squad, might also be thinking the same. Indeed, the events of the past few days could conceivably have made up his mind that it is time to leave Manchester.

Sane had been swaying in that direction anyway and, as if this whole process has not been galling enough for City, it is Bayern who are hoping to tempt him back to Bundesliga. The irony is not lost on City, who consulted lawyers last season when the then president, Uli Hoeness, was quoted saying that Sheikh Mansour paid for signings by ramping up the price of oil. City let it be known, via unnamed sources, it was the remark of a “smug, arrogant egotist”, which is probably an accurate gauge of relations between the two clubs.

As for Guardiola, imagine the pressure he will be under to regain the Premier League title from Liverpool if he keeps to his word and sticks around for another season. Guardiola was being deliberately contrary earlier this week when he floated the idea he could be sacked if his team lost to Madrid. He won’t be fired and nobody surely ever thought he would be. It would, however, confirm his reign in Manchester will not feature the trophy he craves the most and that will weigh on him heavily when, ultimately, this was why Abu Dhabi was so intent on bringing him to the club.

Eleven years since their takeover, City have managed only one Champions League semi-final so far and that was under Manuel Pellegrini. Guardiola, who is never good at hiding his feelings, can hardly feel enthused about the possibility of his time in Manchester ending this way — controversially, with a sizeable cloud hanging over the club and more debate, perhaps unfairly, about whether he has come up short. He has, in effect, only this season to shape that debate more to his liking.

At the very least, the ban leaves City with all sorts of financial complications bearing in mind the pay structure that the chief executive, Ferran Soriano, introduced after arriving at the club from Barcelona. City, like most clubs, operate a performance-related scheme that means players can earn significant bonuses, often in excess of £1 million, just for qualifying for the Champions League. Their pay automatically goes up for being involved in the competition and there are considerable bonuses dependent on how far the team goes.

The players, in other words, could now find themselves losing out on huge sums of money through no fault of their own. Guardiola, too, if he and his staff have the same arrangement in their contracts, which is highly likely. Behind the scenes, there is an expectation that Soriano and the director of football, Txiki Begiristain, will make sure the club cover everybody rather than risk the upset it might cause. But it is unconfirmed so far and the players are waiting to find out.

Add to that the amount of money the players could lose through personal endorsements and it is no wonder they and their agents might feel aggrieved. Adidas, for example, have a two-tier system that has City in the top range, with the likes of Spurs and Atletico Madrid a rung below, but that could conceivably change.

City, to go back to the earlier point, have been through worse and — with a nod to the football historian Gary James for this little fact — they have also faced heavier punishments for previous misdemeanours. In 1906, the club were caught making improper payments and 17 players were banned from playing for them ever again. The directors were ordered to resign and the chairman and secretary were barred from football sine die.

The secret, perhaps, is to avoid getting yourselves into trouble in the first place.

 

[spursfan77]

Lovely, I’m really revelling in this!

 

[George94]

Lovely, I’m really revelling in this!

God I really hope this fucks them up. The owners deserve everything coming to them.

I think they should be relegated. Remember when Juventus, biggest club in Italy, were relegated for tapping up referees?

Is there really that much difference? In my view, it's the same. It's corruption. Cheating is cheating. No club is too big for the rules.

In basic terms, the rules of FFP state a club can only spend as much as they make. So losing out on £100m a year just from not playing in the Champions League, in theory, should handcuff them from making any big signings.

But the cynic in me still thinks City will find a way out of this.

 

[SugarRay]

That Bluemoon makes for amusing reading -

It’s literally everyone else’s fault in the world that this has happened. Why can’t people be happy for us that we’ve found brilliant “investors” who are doing things the right way? Making even the most deluded of scousers seem like sane, normal fans!

 

[George94]

That Bluemoon makes for amusing reading -

It’s literally everyone else’s fault in the world that this has happened. Why can’t people be happy for us that we’ve found brilliant “investors” who are doing things the right way? Making even the most deluded of scousers seem like sane, normal fans!

I don't feel sorry for City fans at all - they've enjoyed more success in the last 11 years than they had any right doing so.

 

[punkisback]

Roses are Red
City are blue
Without Sheikh Mansour
They’d be in league two.

I remember in the 00s and 90s they were a yo-yo club. Remember the song sound to the tube of yellow submarine?

 

[Tucker]

I remember in the 00s and 90s they were a yo-yo club. Remember the song sound to the tube of yellow submarine?

I remember them dropping down to division 2 (what’s now league 1.) They were always a club on par with the likes of West Brom, and Sheffield United back in the day, largish fan base with a decent history, but generally not at the top table. It’s only the fact that a brutal regime decided to flood them with money that they’ve had even the slightest whiff of success.

 

[jay2040]

It's such a shame that we as fans, and by that I mean fans of all the clubs, never seem to find ways of uniting against the way football has been corrupted.

Imagine if fans simply didn't buy away tickets when their clubs played Man City. Essentially boycott Man City games. It wouldn't have much of a financial impact, but it would still be noteworthy.

So sad that it just simply won't happen. It's one of the reasons football has so easily been taken over by the likes of the Al-Nahyans.

It wont make fuck all difference as they dont need money from away fans!

 

[rez9000]

It wont make fuck all difference as they dont need money from away fans!

Which is why I said "it wouldn't have a financial impact".

It's not about the money, it's about the visual, the commentary.

 

[jay2040]

This just serves as a reminder that, regardless of what they have won over the past decade, Manchester City are still just a small local club cheating their way to the top table with steroids. Even when some of the best football the country has ever been seen was being played at their stadium, there were still thousands of empty seats every week. Through the most in-your-face, dodgy, corrupt practices, a family with a long list of human rights abuses directly attributed to their names has turned them into their plaything, without a care in the world for who else they have screwed over along the way.

If we look at Tottenham alone, our past decade could have been very different had City (and Chelsea before them) not won the lottery. Ten years ago, Levy's first vision was finally coming to fruition, we had an emerging young side of talented players that played good football, assembled through intelligent scouting and careful budget planning. Modric, Bale, Lennon, Defoe, King, Dawson, Huddlestone, Rose and even a teenage Harry Kane - the foundations were there to build a top side for the next few years. We had been camped outside the gates of the Champions League for years, biding our time, waiting for one of the old "big four" to blink and drop out. Finally - Liverpool did, they made some terrible decisions on and off the pitch from 2008-2010 and their team fell to pieces. It should have been our moment to capitalise. It should have been our turn. But instead, this small local club who had already tried selling their soul and dignity to a disgraced Thai politician, suddenly muscled their way in ahead of us. Who knows how things could have turned out differently for us if Man City's squad was still made up of players of the calibre of Emile Mpenza and Rolando Bianchi. Logically, we'd have been looking at four more Champions League qualifications over the past decade just by virtue of having finished one place behind those who did qualify with City occupying one of those four places. Think what that extra exposure and revenue (especially pre-stadium construction) could have meant for us at that point. Would Modric and Bale's heads have been turned as quickly as they were if we'd been Champions League regulars? What if we'd actually been able to sign players like Craig Bellamy, Gareth Barry and Sergio Aguero, all of which we bid for, only to be completely blown out of the water by ridiculous offers of money from Man City? What if this hadn't had the knock on effect to distort the market, where agents representing our transfer targets saw this kind of activity from City and decided that therefore, their players were "worth" way more in wages than they actually were? What if, at the time we finally had a side that looked good enough to win the league, Kyle Walker hadn't received a "treble your money" offer from them?

We tried to do things by the book. Fairly, ethically, morally - the right way that every club should be proud of. And City came along with their financial doping and spoilt it. They might not have directly knocked us out of any cups, or beaten us in the two title races we were involved in. But make no mistake, this behaviour from Man City has had a huge hindrance on our fortunes over the past decade. And for that reason, I am over the moon with this ruling. Fuck Manchester City, fuck their spoilt and tiny fan base and fuck their evil owners - you have had it coming and quite frankly you have gotten off lightly.

Hilarious analysis of 'what if' scenario, are you not going to provide a different reality had **** Campbell stayed on?

It is what it is, we have to adapt to the competition.

 

[thebenjamin]

Lots of reporting that if CAS don't find in their favour, City will take this to the Swiss Supreme Court - meaning this will truly drag on for years and years.

 

[mark87]

That Bluemoon makes for amusing reading -

It’s literally everyone else’s fault in the world that this has happened. Why can’t people be happy for us that we’ve found brilliant “investors” who are doing things the right way? Making even the most deluded of scousers seem like sane, normal fans!

Doing things the right way? What idiots. They couldn't be more the wrong way.

 

[spursfan77]

Lots of reporting that if CAS don't find in their favour, City will take this to the Swiss Supreme Court - meaning this will truly drag on for years and years.

If that’s the case then the premier league will have to step in and sort them out here. We can’t have that.

 

[rez9000]

Hilarious analysis of 'what if' scenario, are you not going to provide a different reality had **** Campbell stayed on?

It is what it is, we have to adapt to the competition.

Im sorry, so you’re saying that what Man City have done is perfectly acceptable...?

 

[cider spurs]

Feck 'em.

 

[thebenjamin]

If that’s the case then the premier league will have to step in and sort them out here. We can’t have that.

Why not? Things will just remain as they are until its decided one way or another.

 

[spursfan77]

Why not? Things will just remain as they are until its decided one way or another.

Because if they are found guilty down the line and it meant that the fifth placed team could have got in this year then that’s another can of worms. If they appeal then the current ruling has to begin during that process. Or it has to be settled before next season. It’s all a mess and Man City should be the ones to suffer and not others.

 

[Yid-ol]

Why not? Things will just remain as they are until its decided one way or another.

It's decided they are guilty as of now, so a punishment should be done now also. If they want to appeal and drag it on, the punishment shouldn't be stopped IMO

 

[thebenjamin]

It's decided they are guilty as of now, so a punishment should be done now also. If they want to appeal and drag it on, the punishment shouldn't be stopped IMO

That's a fair opinion, but considering exclusion will cost City the best part of £100m for one season, and mean they'd make a substantial loss and have to dismantle their team and sell players to comply with FFP and not incur further punishment, there's no chance it happens until their series of appeals is done. Were they then found not guilty it would leave everyone involved open to prohibitive levels of legal action.