This Sucks

[@Darilon12]

If the prem was a beauty pegant it's now decided by who's daddy can afford the better plastic surgery.

[@mikexstad1121]

Hahahah that's perfect

[@Hachiae]

it always has been... or did you forget when roman bought chelsea?

[@skytommy_main]

Man utd wasted 200m+ on useless players

[@rupayan_biswas]

We’re not even on the top 5 most spent club lol

[@renderlifestyle]

People have short memories. Prem had always been like this! United used to poach the best players all the time. Fergie literally tried to get Zizoo, Gérard etc. He got Teddy S, Andy Cole etc. The best teams have always done this. Obviously the money in football is more now but the prem has always been like this. Its why it's become the richest because of the outside investments being allowed and no regulation. It was only after Chelsea came along and spent loads then City got rich and started buying players - did FA want FFP to be introduced.

[@mrmr446]

By the logic used to stop Abramovich owning Chelsea both Man City and Newcastle should have had no choice but to change owners due to the atrocities committed in Yemen by Emirati and Saudi forces but they have better PR.

[@MyLilPwny43]

Right, but nobody cares about Yemen, that's the difference

[@hayz1313]

with the weapons and training provided by the Brits, it never ends. Politics need to stay completely out of football.

[@harveycooper5098]

@@hayz1313 good luck with that. politics is directly ingrained in the history of the game

[@oikhena]

@@hayz1313 The statement politics should be out of football is itself inherently political.

[@CTQOrigi]

Abramovich isn’t even directly involved in the Russian government anymore, and never was at the national level. His last official government post, governor of the easternmost province, ended in 2008. It’s a farce!

[@Grillpan]

Zealand explaining why Man City are soulless: “so imagine a burger”

[@coralpilled]

🦅🇺🇸

[@Crackparty803]

Peak yank

[@gezblair]

I can see PSG offering Pep all the money in the world to get that CL trophy they want so much. So he’ll be in another country looking pretty when charges do finally hit. He’s a clever lad.

[@conky83]

I'd be a clever lad too if i had the same previous jobs and money available to me.

[@VictorMontel]

I was just talking about this with a friend of mine today, since Pep said the 24/25 season might be his last with City. PSG is the only other club right now who could offer Pep everything he needs. I don't think he'll sign with another club in England or Germany, he's not going to Real Madrid, and no club in Italy can afford his wages or his player requests, so i see PSG as the only option for him. And since he said he's not going past this season, he might have some inside information regarding the investigation. He always said he'll leave if they are convicted of the charges.

[@SebastianDalhed]

Lazy take. Pep buys in to a structure. City is one of the best structured club's in the world along side Real Madrid. He wouldn't go to PSG because that club is a trash fire when it comes to structure. I mean, they let Mbappe basically run the club. I don't see him going to any other club at the moment, because he'd never go to Real Madrid, Bayern has lost its way, Barcelona is a black hole and no other team has the structure he wants. He's going to take on a national team next, it's the only way out of City.

[@doublejacketjimmy391]

@@VictorMontelNah he’ll probably go manage English National team or something. I see he got tired of club football.

[@stephentaylor6617]

Pep is not renewing his contract because there is no challenge for him. Pep saw Klopp as his biggest rival and without Klopp to beat, it is too easy for Pep.

[@Wanglord]

City with the 4th in a row AND THE CROWD GOES meh whatever

[@sector9173]

AND THE CROWD GOES 🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥

[@MinkesSM]

and the crowd goes mild!

[@gevgnek]

I think people just see City winning the league as a bye for next season at this point

[@prysrek8858]

People are just happy that Arsenal didn't win 😂

[@mattshark7665]

It was the same when the won the domestic treble, no one cared or appreciated it. They will always be considered tainted and they won’t ever have the respect.

[@tylercady3985]

The precedent set by the Everton and Nottingham Forest cases says the punishment is a base of 4 points for financial breaches, plus 2 points for bad behavior, minus 2 points for good behavior. In that case we have 54 financial breaches (54×4=216) 35 charges for failure to comply with investigations (35×2=70) 14 charges for failure to supply accurate information regarding player and manager compensation (14×4=70) In total we have 340 points taken off. By that math we should sending City down to League 2 at best. Edit: fixed my incredibly bad math. I used the wrong points deduction for my calculations, updated the results to match the original stated values.

[@SirEEf13]

Probably the most idiotic/biased thing the Premier League could do is to award it as a single instance points deduction, resulting 1 year in which they are guaranteed to get relegated, another in which they are guaranteed to get promoted and a 3rd in which they can comfortably be title contenders again. If all of these charges go through then City should be forced to restart from the very bottom of the footballing pyramid in England.

[@niclaswenzel8689]

@@SirEEf13 if it would really be something like the 340 points the OP mentioned, they should imho just take the rest of the negative points into the following season. So e.g. they get 80 points in the premier league, the get relegated into championship and have -260 the following season....

[@addrenry784]

@@niclaswenzel8689 yup, pay it off in installments. works for me.

[@tylercady3985]

@niclaswenzel8689 yeah I more did that math as a measure of how far down to send them based on the precedent set by previous cases. In this case, 340 points would likely land you somewhere around League 2/National League, therefore rather than giving them a 340 point deduction, that's the division you send them to.

[@EpicRenegade777]

@@SirEEf13 imagine being a 9th tier tiny club who plays on a muddy pitch suddenly playing away at the emirates.

[@stu8758]

Without the alleged breaches you potentiallly don''t have that team they eventually built, so you can't really separate the team from the club when they're both so intertwined, it's the snowball effect. FFP is a shambles, we all know that, but you can't just dismiss the 115 charges because FFP is a mess, the final verdict has to find them innocent to dismiss them. Rules are rules no matter how bad said rules are.

[@mancuniangamecat8288]

Innocent

[@man4437]

It's kinda funny how people heard the phrase "financial fair play" a few years ago and now use it even when they're talking about the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability rules

[@lizardlenny]

@@man4437 Replace "FFP" with "profit and sustainability rules". His point still stands.

[@therealking6202]

They will never be cleared of all charges since they have the 35 counts of not cooperating. The disgusting Sheik Mansour and his shady band of lawyers WILL be found guilty.

[@felixwinkler6450]

To put it in a different sport: If in Formula 1 we found out that Red Bull used forbidden parts and increased their performance illegally, Verstappen would still be a great driver, but would we really know how good he truly is? If in the Tour de France one cyclist had cheated with performance enhancing substances and won seven titles, would we truly know if that individual actually deserved their titles? That cyclist might be the best, but we can't tell, because we never knew their abilities when not cheating. It would ruin a decade or two in the sport and whoever would have won instead was robbed of their price. It would alter history, hurt the sport as a whole and damage the trust in that sport for many, many decades. Would Guardiola have left Bayern Munich if ManCity wouldn't have promised him the kind of money to spend that they were able to promise? Would De Bruyne maybe have joined Bayern Munich instead - which was interested in him, but Guardiola didn't want him in Munich, he wanted him in Manchester - if Guardiola had stayed and asked the Belgian to join the Bavarians? Would maybe Bayern have done what they usually do - buying the best players from the national competition - and gotten Haaland from Dortmund, if ManCity would be a mid-tier club in the Premier League? That's just Bayern Munich. How many more titles might Klopp have won? So many other teams would have picked up the players that now play for City. I guarantee that not a single player of this squad would be a member of the club if it wasn't for the money. No, if it wasn't for the billions from an authoritarian oil state, Manchester City would have never become what they are. Every single title they hold they stole from another team, from the other people working for the clubs, from other managers and other players. And other fans. And I bet when we look back in twenty years from now, we will blame this era for the downturn of the beautiful game. Too much money pumped into a system unnaturally, which ignores the main goal of any source of entertainment: Being entertaining. It fetishizes money and makes anything else secondary. Is anyone entertained by this? By VAR, which mainly exists to make sure that the randomness of the game is eliminitated, lowering the risk for the rich? Entertained by soulless businesses dominating their leagues? Entertained by the dozens of streaming platforms dividing match days into match weeks? Entertained by ticket prices that only millionaires can afford? Entertained by stadiums built by slaves in the middle of deserts to have two or three matches played in them? Are you not entertained? And what happens when the money leaves? When investors realize that the sport is only growing because of their own money and pull out before the bubble bursts? When sports-washing dictators realize that they create a Streisand effect and make sure that everybody knows how evil they are? When the billionaires seek out a new flavor of the month and invest in a new vanity project? What's left then? The fans are gone, the beauty of the game is gone, the love for the game extinct and all that is left are empty stadiums and illegitimate records. Manchester City, like PSG and the Red Bull franchise and others like them, stand for what's wrong with football: It's not for the fans, it's not for the entertainment, it's only to help evil to sportswash, billionaires to bleed clubs dry and for egomaniacs to feel powerful. Manchester City is everything that is wrong with a society purely based on greed. On crack.

[@TheSilentScreamX]

Premier League Champions* Whether their fans like it or not, every title City win has a giant asterisk next to it. It also eats at them that they can buy trophies, but can't buy respect. Everything that's special about Man City came out of a Saudi bank account.

[@MicDubTV]

*Abu Dhabi, but correct

[@ilovejoskogvardiol]

cry more, the trophies are there we don’t care what people like you think

[@FrenchieBrit]

If you're feeling queasy about that, imagine seeing PSG (owned by the Qatar royal family) getting a tax breaks from the FRENCH GOVERNMENT! First, President Sarkozy lobbied Qatar to acquire his beloved club in 2011 in exchange for tax-free investments in France (and an arms deal), then a few years later the Ministry of Finance basically helped PSG avoid taxes on Neymar's transfer in 2017. And you wonder why Ligue 1 is a "farmer's league"...

[@neilbiggs1353]

It was interesting what happened with Ligue 1 following the high earners ta that I think it was Sarkozy tried to introduce. IIRC, the French courts rules that the employers had to pay the tax, but shortly after this policy was introduced, French players became the 2nd most common in leagues around Europe as the could pay more that then French teams outside of PSG and Monaco. Not sure if that tax is still in place, but it had an interesting side effect in creating an environment where French sides were dependant upon young players who were earning less, and could possibly be sold on to clubs in richer leagues. It feels like there are lots of English academy products who never get invested in the same way since the PL sides can generally buy a seasoned pro and pay their wages

[@FrenchieBrit]

@@neilbiggs1353 Yes, as a whole French teams generally still pay more taxes on player wages than the other Top 5 leagues which indeed makes it harder for French teams to keep the better players. Foreign investors still get tax breaks for 2 or 3 years I believe which clearly gave Paris and Monaco a competitive advantage in the early 2010s. Regarding English academy products I feel like the situation is improving. It's probably one of the few side benefits of Brexit: it's a lot harder to bring in foreign youngsters which makes more room for home grown players.

[@neilbiggs1353]

@@FrenchieBrit The Brexit situation is interesting. It hopefully stops teams doing what Arsenal did at one time where they'd sign 16 year olds to contracts to recruit them from foreign academies for their youth team instead of producing graduates from their actual academy. So on one hand it incentivises the clubs getting the academy part right. I don't think that has been the problem though. For me, the big issue is players being able to go and play at the right level from 16+, and the ability to sign for foreign clubs like Sancho, Bellingham and Madueke did has been diminished. With how much money the PL teams have, they can afford to have squads filled with internationals and experienced journeymen. Playing the kids risks you being outmatched in that part of the pitch which is where the other leagues have less money generally helped them. I'd prefer the English u17s in PL teams to be playing in Holland or France to be honest! Especially if those teams owned the kids and had an incentive to develop them to either help the team improve or to sell them for a good sum back to the English leagues (so I'm a little suspect of the idea of loan deals for youngsters)

[@TPCDAZ]

Whenever I hear people say "Ok fine there are 115 charges but you have to separate that from the team" ....NO. Thats like robbing a bank and setting up a legit business with the money. The legit business was still build on theft and law breaking.

[@kylerodd2342]

It’s pretty easy to appreciate the talent of the team even if you don’t like how it was assembled. Foden’s goal was a beaut yesterday and it’s easy to see that. It’s a whole other conversation when dealing with the ethics behind building the team. If Man City is found guilty those players will move onto other clubs and still be talented. Simple

[@Gonzales9514]

@@kylerodd2342sure you can appreciate the ability of the players on the team, I think ‘the team’ in this context means the club as a whole, not the players in particular. The club’s success is built on the 115 charges. Obviously those players would be good regardless but the point is they wouldn’t all be at Man City

[@kylerodd2342]

@@Gonzales9514 That’s not what I was taking Z to say. Seemed like “team” signified “players.” Not going to rewatch to find out though. Just a semantic issue between the two of us.

[@Gonzales9514]

@@kylerodd2342 yeah, I think Z was talking about the players you’re right I was thinking of the comment up here. But yeah the distinction between the team/players and the club is possible

[@timf2241]

premier league is the proof that farmers do in fact have a lot of money

[@hrodebrt]

Farmer are actually quite loaded so yeah checks out well

[@t.c.4321]

​@@hrodebrtdepends on the farmer. Some struggle and rely on government subsidies to get by... in fact most do in the UK and France

[@JayTube1999]

Are we the farmers league?

[@Michallote]

Yes

[@Michallote]

Look what they did to my boy, now Bundesliga seems VERY interesting next year, also Serie A is very competitive

[@Renatoioi]

no, just a very mismanaged one

[@Rachl1284]

not yet but if man city wins next year itms official

[@AvfcMason]

No we aren’t every top league is won by the same group of teams every year with a super rare exceptions it just feels so negative cuz it’s City and how they want about building their dominance Liverpool would probably have done what city have done if this team didn’t exist

[@TPCDAZ]

Also just to add Liverpool spend what they bring in usually. So when Liverpool buy Allison for £66m and Van Dijk for £75m £141m combined_ they sold Coutinho for £142m which pretty much cancels out the purchase. So lumping Liverpool in with Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal is a little bit misleading.

[@jonwalker280]

this is just not true at all, while granted they don't spend quite as much as other teams to make it seem like they aren't spending more than they recieve is just nonsense, I've just been through all the seasons on Transfrmarkt since Van Dijk joined Liverpool and this is what I found 17/18 - £10.85m profit 18/19 - £140.88m loss 19/20 - £37.60m profit 20/21 - £66.85m loss 21/22 - £60.45m loss 22/23 - £61.60m loss 23/24 - £111.30m loss so between 2017-2024 (before the summer 2024 transfer window) they've made a loss on transfers of £392.63m, now I've not gone through the other clubs figures but to say they're only spending what they get unlike the other teams is just a lie (also the figures are actually in euros not pounds but I don't know how to do the euro symbol)

[@keegan4877]

What is the point of being celebrating it when it’s going to be taken away from them later. Well done Man City on 4 consecutive PL titles. And well done Lance Armstrong on 7 consecutive Tour de France titles.

[@Kingslayer1572]

Financial breaches cannot lead to titles being stripped. Only steroids and match fixing like Juventus can lead to titles being taken away. None of City's trophies can be stripped.

[@bigmeatie]

If Man City had any fans, they wouldn't be very happy about this video.

[@renderlifestyle]

How are those tears?

[@Young_LJ]

Appreciate greatness

[@rupayan_biswas]

There’s nothing wrong in this video. If we did something illegal, we should be punished. But until then, this weight, this blame of charges should not be put on us. Its annoying. If we did something wrong, why arent the fa punishing us? Its the fa’s incompetence that those charges arent proven and we are still having to bare the tag of oil money club. If you can prove the guilt, punish us. If you cant, sit the fuck down and watch the greatest football team in the modern era play.

[@Tom-lr4os]

My colleague has a friend that works at Wembley so was offering two tickets in the Man City end and she didn't have any takers, apparently there was a mistake and it was actually the United end so she updated everyone and got a ton of interest all of a sudden haha

[@jk9117]

​​​​​ You won't be punished because of the relationships between Saudi Arabia/UAE and the UK. That's why everyone is mad, you are definitely guilty but we all know that the FA is bought and won't do anything to punish you. I am not even from an english club so I am literally not affected, yet you all are always saying "we are jealous of your success". No your club is owned by a fricking state that doesn't respect human rights and is built on cheating and fraud

[@Mydigitalepitaph]

The counter argument to all of this is that some corporations wield more power than some nations can these days, and can hugely influence government policy choice by lobbying. The line between corporation and nation is no longer black and white (in all honesty, it never has been) but theres been an acceleration of this dilution between the two over the last 15/20 years. You could argue Abramovich's take over of Chelsea was bought with Russian state owned money (the post Soviet oligarch situation that started in the 90s). This is not a new issue.

[@pavlikmorozovgaming468]

Bro was literally wearing an nyfc shirt yesterday and is now talking about this 💀

[@Chris_Elliot84]

2:02 Paul Scholes

[@rory4605]

Good shout. Scholes still feels underrated.

[@TristanSpow]

Not even close mate and you know it 🤣🤣🤣

[@Chris_Elliot84]

@@TristanSpow yeah it's not, Scholes was on another level pal hahaha

[@michaelavina6697]

It was really hard to watch that trophy ceremony yesterday without a single mention from the peacock team of the 115 pendings, just feels like sometimes the prem is hoping we forget

[@deric3676]

0:45 Madrid winning UCL's doesnt sound dirty is a crazy statement

[@tudormoldoveanu6249]

then talks about city as a "state-owned club" while madrid is the OG state owned club😭

[@kunaguero6725]

Seriously.

[@Cio_d-borba]

​@@tudormoldoveanu6249Real Madrid isn't state owned. But they got financial help from the state on some occasions in the past, which in my eyes is even more ridiculous...

[@NJTRAF]

Pep has basically completed football, I think that he either retires, goes into international management, or goes to either PSG for their silly money football, or he goes to Italy as the only major league he hasn’t managed in.

[@neilbiggs1353]

Cobblers! Pep has never managed a team that wasn't the top or second highest wage spend in the league. That's not 'completing' football, that is playing on easy mode...

[@tomas.lambert]

115 and oil money can buy you trophies but it can’t buy you fans

[@idk-dz3fo]

Mancity had A LOT of fans before the takeover

[@scotty90]

@@idk-dz3fobro be serious, Man City was at best struggle to make top 15 most supported club before the takeover

[@ethan8326]

@@idk-dz3four either lying to urself or ur making a joke

[@Drigallski]

@@ethan8326 i feel bad for legacy-city fans in that regard though. They were always the underdog, trying to go back to the titles they once won. And now they are winning but getting shit on for being plastic fans.

[@idk-dz3fo]

@scotty90 They finished 9th and 10th in the two seasons before the takeover. And if you go further back in history you would realise that we have won the league twice (36/37 and 67/68) and have come runners up 3 times before the takeover, as well as winning 4 FA cups (03/04, 33/34, 55/56, 68/69), a UEFA cup winners' cup, 2 league cups and 3 community/charity shields ALL before the takeover. We also have the highest recorded attendance at our home stadium of any english team ever (84569) at Maine Road versus Stoke City in the FA cup 6th round in 1934. Even Man Utd's highest ever attendance in a game was in our stadium, Maine Road in 1948 (we lent them the stadium after WWII since their's was damaged). Historically, Man City has been one of the clubs with the most fans in the premier league yet people always forget that.

[@Ryuzakku]

Man City's team does not exist without the violations. So the 4 consecutive championships never happens, which is why it's doing nothing but damaging competitiveness in the EPL.

[@tl7643]

It's not just state ownership which is shit and unfair. Private ownership in general is ruining the competetiveness of the sport for smaller clubs where the club still belongs to the people. But of course the premiere league has already fucked up in that regard and every club is owned by some sort of billionaire or shit. I don't get how some people in england are begging for new investors to shovel money in their club's a*s.... This by the way not only ruined the premiere league, which i don't really care about anymore at this point but also the competition in the CL etc.

[@Weeji_420]

That was the whole point of the Premier League in the first place, to breakaway from all the so called small clubs, turn it into a business and make a shit ton of money. Karma is a bitch, now the league is just a corrupt space for American hedge funds and states to wash their money. 🤣 Hopefully the bubble bursts at some point. Can't see it though.

[@neilbiggs1353]

The ownership issue is probably doing less harm than the Champions League, at least post FFP. When you get a team that is getting an extra £50m per season, the chasing teams have to find a way to fund that gap to compete, so you tend to get the same teams competing in the CL each year from most leagues. It's a feedback loop.

[@t.c.4321]

Oh how cool, you follow football but don't care about the Premier League.... stupid hipster

[@Vainglory14]

The key difference to me in terms of City's ownership is that other teams are owned by capital-motivated businessmen who are competitive in order to increase the value of the club beyond their investment through success, while City's ownership are politically motivated and are willing to decrease the value of their investments in order to ensure their political legitimacy. We accept the first one because we live in a capitalist society and it feels inevitable (there's no such thing as a good billionaire and all), while we reject the other because we live in a (broadly) democratic society.

[@jasarole]

As a Spurs fan I’m ok not being mentioned in this convo until the very end. Levy is his own kind of two headed monster. I am starved for fun or joy or anything nice.

[@biffbenedict1603]

was no FFP in forced but there was a definite date for it's beginning which was in like 18 months of the purchase. There was absolutely a short window in order get the project started.

[@benficademacaufan]

This is why everyone should watch the Macau elite league. Crazy title race between CPK and Benfica Macau

[@meskahmusic]

EPL teams farming so hard they will start showing up at training in tractors...

[@erwinvanoostenbrugge]

Man Citys legendary 4 consecutive titels are right up there with Lance Armstrongs 7 Tour de France victories

[@stevedaytona]

Thanks for this one Zealand. Many people wonder why it is taking so long to resolve. It's because Man City are still obstructing and delaying in any way they can. They know the longer they can delay, the further away the alleged offences will appear, which will make it harder to levy appropriate punishment. The Haaland situation you talked about is interesting - on it's own it was fine. They paid his release clause and now pay him a stupid amount per week. But without all the spending and cheating in the early 2010's they would not be in that position to make that signing. Honestly, I don't what an appropriate punishment would be. Any fine is obviously pointless as they have an insane amount of cash available. Relegation doesn't do anything except delay their next title for a season or two. Even stripping them of their titles doesn't fit their crime - they will still have all the benefits (infrastructure, academy, global reputation) that they accrued by their spending. It's sad.

[@exodiusow7649]

The comparison with real madrid us so funny, how do you not see the irony in talking about state owned club and putting the franco club on a pedestal

[@RaulEdu33]

Real Madrid is owned by Los Socios (about 92,000 fans), they never had any help from Franco, quite the opposite, even lost most Ligas during his time.

[@RwandaBob]

good lord franco died half a century ago let it go

[@blazingdiamond1386]

@@RaulEdu33Never had any help from Franco is crazy, they won a freaking five peat of the UCL and 9 trophies in ten years,forcing Barca players to lose 11-1 after they beat them 3-0,stealing Di Stefano,etc.I know Madrid is not just Franco,but to say he had no change in making Madrid the powerhouse is it today is honestly insane.

[@RaulEdu33]

@@blazingdiamond1386 Your source is Culemania or some Barca website? Look up Spanish newspapers archives from that era, there are articles and even videos of the ceremony at Barcelona's old stadium giving Franco 1 of 3 medals, after he helped the club out of bankruptcy. ProCatalan media hate this and try to suppress the information.

[@Kingslayer1572]

@@RaulEdu33 That's a complete lie. Real Madrid won 6 UCLs under Franco and won the MOST La Ligas. Madrid won 14 La Ligas and had the most La Ligas of any club during Franco's reign and when Franco died in 1975. They even won La Liga with a 5 peat in the 60s. You just lied about everything. And he used Real Madrid as a constant sportswashing and propaganda tool.

[@TheSchmolke]

Waiting for all Man City fans to attack this vide.. . Ooh wait.

[@tomatoisnotafruit5670]

66 dislikes, wow that's just about the entire fanbase of Man City.

[@tholomew]

A big reason why Citys charges is taking longer is that unlike Everton and Notthingham Citys lawyers have sent everything they can to the appeals court. Obviously Citys charges will take longer in general since they are much larger but the reason it has taken so long is mainly down to City themself obstructing for as much as possible on the way.

[@fishfootball5301]

It is a strange time to be an mcfc fan. I have supported the club since before the takeover and it is strange because while I of course love seeing us as the best team in the world, we didn't choose our owner and can't really do anything about the charges. If they have cheated it feels like the owners should be the ones punished not the club.

[@RNLINO]

The owners are quite interlinked with the club. If the club benefitted from having owners, then it should also bear some responsibility if the owners are punished. Its a two way street.

[@fishfootball5301]

@@RNLINO igy, surely it’s only the fans who are punished as a result though bc the players, managers, owners, board directors etc can fuck off whenever

[@backwardhippo6586]

​@@fishfootball5301 that makes sense but the club has to be punished and titles stripped. It sucks for you as a fan, you didn't have any say in the cheating but it sucks more for the fans of clubs who missed out on titles because they were trying to beat a team who was cheating. Liverpool and Arsenal have played fair, gone the distance and lost titles on the last day to a team who didn't play fair and is still reaping the benefits of what they did. It sucks for city fans but it's only fair to everyone else that the club gets punished.

[@fishfootball5301]

@@backwardhippo6586 in fairness if you think about what ffp is, why it exists and who pushed for it I don’t think Liverpool and Arsenal can feel all that hard done by, as it is a corrupt system as it stands

[@backwardhippo6586]

@@fishfootball5301 That's a red herring - agree with the rules or not, Arsenal and Liverpool followed them, and most signs point to city not having followed them.

[@chrisdrumm1943]

The thing everyone forgets... is with the infinite funds comes the best lawyers in the whole world

[@chrisdrumm1943]

Plus it's fucking bullshit that anybody cares every team cheats... guess what they have spent a billion and won... united has spent a billion and won...

[@Archie503]

Erling Haalends dad first played in England as a right back for Forest.He didn't seem to keen to come play for us.

[@oj397]

I’m a City fan, perfectly happy, love history and if I go through the list of all of your clubs, dirtballs, the lot of the footballing world.

[@dibidus6080]

There's a lot of greatness sorrounded in shit. You basically explained how manure works.

[@garthreypert1719]

Something that is often missed is that City and Chelsea broke the transfer market. Teams have to spend hundreds of millions to tempt players to come to them, instead of City. City can usually bid less but have a wage that prices the other teams out now. Thats how their net spend is so reasonable in comparison to other clubs.

[@grealish2234]

Save all your tears mate . We gonna win it all .

[@rory4605]

I'm from 2027, how tf did Zealand predict that King Charles would buy Toulouse?

[@aliirisdawn5271]

he's still alive?!

[@Z3NITH11]

This is just my opinion, but I think where football has gone wrong is allowing owners to inject money into clubs apart from infrastructure and non-coaching staff. Player wages, coach wages, transfer fees etc. should come from football related income streams such as competition revenue, sponsorships which are vetted, and TV deals. The whole point of financial regulation should be the betterment of the game, so let the owners spend on stadiums and training grounds to leave long lasting improvements for clubs. Transfer fees would naturally fall way down but would be more based in reality. If a club makes it into Europe the money they get would make a huge difference and give them a chance to build.

[@Batasz]

The problem with that is that a small club would never be able to compete vs big clubs. To have a bigger revenue you need more fans -> to get more fans you need to win stuff -> to win stuff you need better players -> to make those players stay you need revenue and give those players hope that they can achieve something in this club. Look at Brighton. Apparently they are the best run club in the prem. How many seasons like that do they need to compete vs "big boys" and on the other hand you have a club like ManUtd who have been terrible at spending their money since SAF left yet they are still somewhere at the top half of the table . Everyone is talking about 115 charges but how is that even an issue if ManCity spend less than ManUtd. I could see it as an issue if they outspend everyone by a large margin but they didnt. Other big clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and even Tottenham can financially compete vs ManCity its just that ManCity spend that money a lot better than others did.

[@alexmarshall4854]

shit, this is probably the best take from someone who isnt a fan of any other prem team or man city, the idea behind the state owned stuff is something I have seen put forward as an argument that is actually sound, this is a great take, thanks Z

[@govinm6973]

@ZealandonYT Agree with what you said but regarding the Haaland example - the question is if they pulled Haaland because they found a way to pay him off the books that inflates his salary beyond what other clubs might have offered. If he went to City despite Chelsea/Utd/Newcastle etc. offering him the same/similar contract - then fair enough - but a fair few people do not think this is the case..

[@thargoff]

For me the Aguero goal is tainted the same way as their last successes. Basically starting from their takeover. Same applies to a lot of teams.

[@VodkaHellstorm]

I get it. I have tickets to Spurs v Newcastle tomorrow night at the MCG, as a 20+ year Toon fan who has never got to see them play in person. Since the takeover, I can't really invest myself in Newcastle anymore, because it feels uncomfortable, exactly like you described. I didn't realize I'd scheduled this the same night I'm meant to train my U10s team, and if I wasn't in 70 bucks, I'd honestly rather go to training. I have to think that you'd be kinda pissed as a City fan to have this incredible team, and have achieved this incredible feat, and nobody on the outside really cares about it.

[@stonedtrooper6969]

115 Oil FC

[@mancuniangamecat8288]

Village idiot found

[@Amos18289]

Ahh I see you are a fan of Salty FC

[@stonedtrooper6969]

@@Amos18289 Always, Salty FC till death

[@Versace_sheets]

​@@Amos18289 and you're a glory hunter.

[@benficademacaufan]

The Manchester Cities are the English club with a lot of charges and is hated by a lot of English peoples and millions of other fans worldwide

[@stke8593]

I mean there is literally like no reaction to Man City winning the league. Everything in the Prem with emotion and relevance takes place from second to last place

[@CryLowderWithCrouder]

See what makes me feel dirty is the cheating. That other stuff too, but mostly it's just the cheating. Everton has been deducted 8 points for far less. Had City been honest and punished appropriately in the seasons they broke the rules, would they even have a single EPL title? That's what people should feel dirty about. City Lance Armstronged the EPL.

[@haashim1411]

And if city admitted their guilt, were punished, managed to recover and build another strong team to win more titles, you’d want them punished again

[@RwandaBob]

i’ve never been a fan of a sports team that likes to win, but i can’t imagine it’s interesting for americans you’ll get the reference: it’s like being an alabama football fan. it just has to get boring to just know you’re always gonna win. i imagine it’s been like that being a city fan these last 6-7 years. when does it get boring to watch your own team because they just always win.

[@thehellyousay]

here's a metaphor for man city: when that many flies are walking on you, you're covered in shit.

[@shahir1395]

How will I tell my grandkids that De Bruyne never won a Ballon D'Or?

[@tomatoisnotafruit5670]

he doesn't deserve one.

[@ExtraSweetPineapple]

One small remark though... when you talk about Real Madrid... perhaps you should take a deep dive into the past and the involvement of the State (read: Spanish Royal Family) in them and then decide for yourself if you think that Real Madrid still deserves the term 'clean'... ;-) (PS Not anti Real at all; just saying...)

[@JakeMcaulay]

me eating a mcdonald's while watching this 0_0

[@leo3811]

The real issue with the Haaland transfer was that beyond the transfer fee, Man City paid an extra 80m to the agent and Haaland's father. This wasn't about the pull of the club, the manager or KDB.

[@haitamc5611]

16:00 Daniel Levy has honestly spent a decent amount in the last few transfer windows.

[@maxderdax6117]

I agree with everything wrong with Man City but somehow people just decide to attack the fans and ignore the amazing history of the club which doesn’t sit right with me.

[@jhs99990]

I feel like they’ll be found guilty of like 5-10 charges and the others won’t be successful, leaving us in some sort of unresolved situation

[@sssf55]

Yea but Man City did spend far more money than everyone else. When you add up all the off the table money paid for players and to coaches they become the biggest net spenders. It sucks not because it feels icky, but because they are cheats. That extra squad depth allows you to overcome razor thin margins and beat Arsenal/Liverpool by 1 point in a title winning season.

[@kuzz4587]

Honestly I've just stopped caring about the Premier League. They let the cat out of the bag by letting sketchy owners take over clubs and now they don't know how to do undo the mess that has been in their own making. Watching the Bundesliga and even the Championship has been far more of a pleasant experience because it just feels more community driven.

[@t.c.4321]

Stupid hipster

[@poiuytrewq1553]

Everyone says FFP and 115 charges. Let’s go over FFP. How are a club like West Ham or Villa supposed to compete with United? You spend as much as you bring in. How much you bring in depends on your fan base. Your fan base depends on the club’s prestige. The prestige depends on your squad and their title wins. The ability to build this squad depends on how much is spent. It’s a cycle that has the “rich stay rich” model that favours teams like United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal who amassed international fan bases during their successful periods over decades. The 115 charges is an easy stick to beat Man City with but clubs have spent on a similar or higher net spend level and haven’t done anything remotely comparable. Just make it like the NBA. Put a rigid salary cap. Fixed agent fees. That will automatically reduce transfer fees and essentially force “financial fair play” without keeping the best teams at the top. Over time, since the salary cap is the same teams that are run smartly like Brighton will start showing up with better teams and have a better chance at winning trophies. Or have the cap slightly favouring teams that have larger fanbases to account for existing contracts and be a middle ground.

[@robbyscott9834]

The 115 charges are not really about net spend, or spending on players. 68 of the charges are for failing to provide accurate financial information, so essentially fraud. Also a large chunk of the charges are City failing to cooperate with the Premier League. City are much bigger cheats than you think

[@williamcross210]

The NBA does not have a rigid salary cap

[@poiuytrewq1553]

@@williamcross210 it’s pretty rigid especially compared to football. The reasons they can exceed the cap and the amount by which they can is small relative to the overall cap. Roughly speaking, 140mil is the soft cap and hard cap is 180 mil. It’s rigid because teams find it hard to have more than 2 stars in their prime at once.

[@MicDubTV]

United’s revenue is based off of merit. Still the biggest club in England with leeches as owners who have never put a dime into the club & haven’t won a title in 10+ years & are still the most talked about club on the planet.

[@poiuytrewq1553]

@@MicDubTV you’re correct. United are an exception and they grew the quickest internationally when the premier league went global. Their success on the pitch and in the academy was perfectly aligned with the explosive growth of the leagues popularity. That gave them the international revenue they have now. The premier league can’t do that again so it’s created a gap that’s hard to bridge. Man City are trying to capitalise on the EPLs expansion efforts into the US market but it’s not on the same scale. It’s kinda how the US built 5k nuclear warheads and then said nobody can make any nukes anymore after WWII. The rules don’t account for the advantages teams had in the past and so changes to the existing order is tough.

[@emanuelfer456]

Unfortunately the only person who is in jail about all corruption and economic crimes is the football leaks guy. Every single director, agent and club is going free and still doing the same stuff, it tells you about the quality of justice in Europe. Who has power always wins no matter the proof

[@rupayan_biswas]

So much crying. All the people cry instead of being better.

[@jacturner6886]

If they get charged, they need to punish the owners. Saw someone else comment the same thing and realised that’s the only true punishment because without them, and future state owners, City might be respected like the 2012 Aguero moment again.

[@tomatoisnotafruit5670]

City won the treble last season, no one cared nor celebrated it. Now they won the league for a historical 4th time in a row, no one cares nor celebrates it. You can buy trophies, you can buy your way to success, but you can't buy respect.

[@animamaster]

Zealand, you have to really ask yourself something. Did you really want Arsenal's annoying fanbase to have something to brag about? It's been 20 years and they still won't shut up about the invincible season they had

[@stevietse257]

Sure Liverpool have spent, but their net spend is lower than Tottenham's and sitting at 9th place in the premier league table since Klopp joined. You missed on that one Zealand.

[@edgeman1135]

West Ham fans joining in to chant "are you watching Arsenal" was pretty pathetic to me. I used to think the same thing about Ajax when I was 6, and was told off by my dad for cheering against them in Europe. We've got plenty of childish and spiteful fans over here too, but generally we cheered for PSV in the rest of the country. Ultra's are ultra's for a reason, but I noticed the same sentiments in comment section that I had thought to be reasonable. I can't imagine being satisfied with 115 fc winning the league again in a way that, to me, seems unhealty for football as a whole.

[@JuanNunez2023]

We all watched and cheered the World Cup built by slave labor. There's no putting the ethics genie back in the bottle. Whether it's a state owned club, multi-national corp, or a single billionaire owner, big business sports and media in general is all incredibly messed up if you dig deep enough. Really, it's best to think of it as something out of our control because it is.

[@niclaswenzel8689]

who is that we you are talking about? Many were apaled and are still

[@neilbiggs1353]

I didn't watch Qatar, as much as anything because I know of friends who wouldn't have been allowed to be with their partner during the event. There were a lot of reasons to hate and ignore that tournament

[@lukee7442]

Saying "there's no point" in trying to rectify mistakes made in the past is insane to me

[@troytheboy1985]

theres been no ethics in football you can trace over the last 100 years shady things and I dont care

[@soundrocketman]

No body called it boring when United was winning every league title, Citys title races have been far closer than some of United were. Guess its less known to younger fans.

[@neilbiggs1353]

United only spent money they earned. It's a different issue

[@lemmiwinks200]

​@@neilbiggs1353 👀 man doesn't know does he

[@benficademacaufan]

Manchester United was built by Sir Alex Ferguson. Not oil money

[@zeo4481]

👏👏👏

[@Alex58399]

I’m still convinced that City paid off QPR to throw that game

[@iirovaltonen4258]

Z, we demand a run vlog!

[@Gin-chan-lg2pg]

nah the point about big clubs spending big at the end there was missing the point,clubs like Liverpool, Manchester United, Real Madrid,Barcelona,etc... spend big because they can do it legally and legitimately, they have big fanbases and over a century of history and success, they are drawing in a lot of investment because of that too. You don't get to that level in 1 or 2 years, or having a state owns you because of unrelated motives that aren't about football.

[@korl8524]

Regardless of what you think about FFP, if City are found guilty of anywhere near all 115 charges they need to be sent tumbling down the pyramid, although I don't know how far. Problem is relegation to the Championship will only slow them down for 1 season, hardly a fair punishment. Alternatively or in addition to, forcing the owners to sell may help since no one will be able to pay as much as they have been and those owners shouldn't really be there to begin with.

[@JabbarTV1]

Imagine the dismay of fan & genuine investor owned French clubs, watching PSG Qatar Sports Investments rack up suspiciously huge sponsorship deals that allowed them to break the league every season, signing the best managers and players from in and outside france I remember vividly when i was younger the days of Lyon, Monaco, Marseille, Bordeaux & Lille was really fun to watch them compete, Lyon used to be the best run club in France back then and they weren't doing anything shady (Juninho was insane)

[@thankgodforcornwall]

I'm loving penguinz0 Zealand

[@deanrwatson]

Football has always been about money, first it was who had the bigger ground, or were you in an affluent area to be able to charge more, or were you the Mersey Millionaires etc. It's nothing new. The truth about Manchester City, is they scare the cartel at the top of our leagues and we as fans since the Skyification of football, buy this myth that the Premier League is competitive and anyone can win? No they cannot. With the exception of 5000 to 1 Leicester the only other team outside of the Big Clubs to win, was Blackburn, bank rolled by a Steel magnate who for the the context of the time spent huge. The reason why City have been so successful, is they have invested and spent that giant money pile, better than any of the other clubs in the cartel. In the two years Ten Hag has been at their neighbours, he has spent double what City spent, by a margin of almost £250m more. They are simply just better run. From top to bottom. In any other business you can invest, waste, earn, spend whatever you want, it's just in Football we're lead to believe that is wrong? Ignore the leverage debt on United, or the offshore insider trading that fuels Spurs, or the Russian money that fuelled Chelsea for a decade and a half. Look over here at well run, well drilled, well coached City, they are the reason why Football is boring, not that we just criminally waste your money. It's a joke. If these clubs cared about sporting integrity and not the threat to their bottom line, they'd have never entertained a European Super League, I wonder where they got that idea, 30 years after they broke up the century old Football League system. Lest not forget the Premier League is first and foremost, not a football league, it is a Company.

[@fpsoccer9791]

I've been a City fan since 2007. I loved how they were always behind but managed to strike upwards. Since reading Giant Killing in 2009, I loved the club even more. It felt like they were the Giant Killers. As they've gotten stronger, I've noticed my perspective and expectation of the club change. I no longer felt like we were the underdog. Wins were expected and didn't make me feel excited. Loses were extremely frustrating and made me angry at my club. In a way, I hate City for becoming so... Boring... In a sense, I guess I am more of a fan of Football rather than City as a club. I still love City and their beautiful Football, but it feels strange. It's not the same like it used to be.

[@Nabend1402]

For me, City should be relegated out of the Football League entirely and refused re-entry for at least 5 years. I think their crimes are that serious and an example needs to made. Nothing they have won is earned. It is all 100% bought and therefore worthless.

[@Shinsoku99]

Where there is smoke, there is fire. 115 charges ain't nothing. I would like to know how many similar/same charges other teams have.

[@haashim1411]

Hundreds of years of judicial progress just to reach the conclusion of no smoke without fire, incredible

[@Bejrika]

I'm so done with the premier league refereeing, the league itself, the financial rules. Everything, it's BS, without the oil money, city is nothing, and their fans made fun of Hillsborough, the Munich air disaster, so many tragedies. But no, instead the Premier League wants to deduct points from Everton. The league is not competitive, it's a joke. Long gone are the days of my Grandads time, where King Kenny got his name sung from the Kop and the big clubs got relegated a couple seasons after winning. Now all the league cares about if protecting the rich six, and I'm saying all this as a Liverpool fan.

[@SVAgxlxxi]

💯

[@tamworth1025]

Real

[@GodfatherBoxSet]

I don't think relegating them will change any way that they act. Juve has been punished many times for financial issues and even relegated. They still get into issues.

[@marcbrisbane6800]

Wasnt Juves relegation for match fixing? Not ffp

[@GodfatherBoxSet]

@@marcbrisbane6800 I think it was both, but they have had point deductions on multiple occasions for FFP

[@candym0nz826]

The McDonalds analogy is 🤌

[@alveuel]

Madrid will most likely win the UCL this year due to Arsenal pushing Man City in the league as hard as they did. You could tell the City players just couldn't get over the line against Madrid in the quarters, it's as if they were worried about something else.

[@Grizzzzzzzzzly]

If man city is your favorite team you’re a npc

[@CherryBakewell21]

It's one of the reasons why I watch the Bundesliga and the EFL Championship, to be honest I wish that a 50+1 like rule was implemented in the Premier League

[@flyingwhale-666]

Honestly, why do you think it's a bad thing to be owned by an oil state?

[@lemontea1126]

Wish the prem had something more similar to the Bundesliga ownership model

[@francabe8908]

Ban State-Clubs

[@matthewhernandez8342]

Too late for that

[@williamcross210]

Also ban Private Equity Clubs

[@Drigallski]

imagine complaining about a moneyclub ruling a league whose only relevance rests on the absurd money they can spend.

[@lkrnpk]

heh you bet a guy named Pep Guardiola would say that his son from another mother and country, Gvardiol, would be good :D Should look into if they are related, probably it's just Croatian way of spelling Guardiola :D

[@jesuspinto9805]

Football fan realises the one who has more money has the best chances to create a successful project in a league where all the clubs have rich owners 🤣

[@andrewhp9754]

Ngl this is funny, a lot of prem fans loved to talk smack about other leagues. Calling them farmers league, and look at their own league now. It’s turned into a farmers league 😂😂

[@bigmaguire9714]

The other issue with City is the City Group, which treats it's fodder clubs like absolute shit, look at what is happening at Troyes etc. Only acquired by the City Group so they can move players there and then out on loan to the other City Group clubs. And maybe something more dodgy is going on...

[@n4r4plays47]

Z you forgot the insane wages Man City is able to pay their players, thats the reason they can spend their money "better" than the other teams. Liverpool cant offer a squad player starter money like Man City. Look how much Matheus Nunes is making and look at how many minutes hes played. Man City can afford to do that. The only team that can compete is Man U and well they just shoot themselves in the foot every season

[@xtwzyz9000]

yeah remember all the bundesliga memes? Prem is getting there in terms of champion predictions

[@cyk719]

Tbh Man City would be less annoying if their fans weren't so adamant that they aren't cheating

[@tomatoisnotafruit5670]

you can just block all of them, will take you just a few second to block all 10 of them.

[@grid462]

Greatness corn in the turd of corruption. Spoiler alert the problem goes much wider than just this.

[@JimTheFly]

One thing that this whole debacle has done is make me try to come up with new and inventive methods for punishing a team that has this many violations. And I think my personal favorite is that it should not be a one-time punishment. Basically give them an amortized punishment. Hit them with a future points deduction, somewhere from ~3 to 5 points per rule breach... but only deduct a maximum of 60 points a year until the penalty is paid off. This would be enough to relegate them in most years, but not all. For example, they'd be in 17th this year, but last year's team would have been in 19th. Or, if you want a REALLY painful one for the bottom line for the club instead of that... Man City forfeits all PL home matches for a period of 3 years. No gate, the absolute minimum for the TV rights, a loss of about 50 points, but also you are giving their opponents points, making things harder. Cup matches would still be allowed to be played there, but no Premier League matches. I know we'll not get anything worthwhile, and honestly, I feel bad for the players who have nothing to do with this. They just want to go out there and have fun and play and win stuff. They're just the pawns while foreign states and megacorps and multi-billionaires try to get people to fudge their work and get away with it, and those people hardly ever truly pay for their shitty deeds.

[@Pajo25ify]

Simple solution relegation to League 2 and a 25 year cost cap of what they spent the year prior to being bought.