Chelsea's transfer ban - at a time when the club wielded considerably greater clout than is currently the case - lasted at least a full season, (two transfer windows) if memory serves; Manchester City (with over 100 breaches) can expect to receive no less.
It's hardly a 'punishment' though is it? Clubs like Chelsea and City will have loads of good young talent out on loan, whom they can recall if needed, no doubt. And remember; Chelsea won the Cl the following season. So a temporary setback, nothing more. Punishments need to be more than a symbolic slap on the wrist.
The problem the EPL has with moving forward with the charges against Man City is where do they find the time to get various parties into court because football never stops. A court case can take months, even years. How many times will the prosecution for the EPL be told 'sorry, that person is not available due to footballing reasons' and if the prosecution pushes it, City's lawyers will just come back and say that you cannot take who you want because it will have a dire impact on the team and thus games they play. It is not going to be easy getting City into court.
It's worse than that. Exposing and punishing Man City as financial dopers would also make the league and FA extremely vulnerable to charges of corruption, incompetence, or both. They let it happen and even encouraged it by not creating and enforcing effective financial controls. Now they are stuck in a spiral of increasing financial inequality. And Man City will try to extract maximum damage on the way down.
Indeed. But I’m not thinking we will be getting back to back European trophies.
City with regards to the Premier league and the FA will probably be like 'if I go down, your going down with me'. Also, if the Premier league were to hand out harsh punishment to City I reckon City will just bounce back with 'Are you sure you want to do this? because if you do we will put our support behind a new Super League bid. The FA will probably do what it did before which is to threaten removal of player licenses and all that but I read the last time they did that clubs involved would have a good case against the FA on illegal use of removal of labor. The UK is still under ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) and I believe the right to work is a human right and thus only legitimate reasons can be used for withholding labor and I think the FA would find the starting of a new football league is not a legitimate reason.
Football has been corrupt forever. Most professional sports are in some way or other. With City, it's just about how much their owners are willing to pay to make it all go away. I dare say the threat of the UAE from some lucrative weapons/business deals with UK companies, would probably be sufficient. The corruption here is allowing such ownership in the first place; you can safely bet that various UK politicians would be implicated if there were to be a truly open investigation. So there will be loads of BTS negotiations to mitigate damage and loss on all sides. The FA will say 'look, we have to show that we are 'punishing you', and City will obviously want to continue buying success, so a Chelsea-like deal will be brokered. It will be woefully inadequate and unjust, the rest of us will roll our eyes and know that corruption has taken place yet again. And the world will keep turning.
Exactly. Anyone who thinks otherwise, is either very naive or a fool.
There's been talk of retrospective action, which could see City stripped of titles (something which Liverpool could potentially benefit from, but not the way I want to see them 'win' tbh), that would actually be a statement. 'No, you haven't won X titles, because you cheated'. Never gonna happen though.
Nobody's arguing that. I think there would be a universal consensus (amongst fans at least) that such corruption needs calling out. But it's politics; ultimately it comes down to who has power. And the only power that really matters, is money.
No, one can think otherwise, and be neither naive nor a fool.
That is no reason to cease to try to hold such bodies to account.
What wit, what devastating analytical insight, all reduced to a single sniggering syllable.
Where did you see that?
As far as I know, that still stands.
I'm laughing, reading this.
It was in The Express. But I read it in the Sky Sports Football app.
