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Reply | Dembele
at 10:31 3 Oct 2026
Hopefully he was changing in a separate room.
Otherwise Celtic would have left themselves open to some serious safeguarding questions! |
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Reply | WLS podcast
at 10:18 3 Oct 2026
I thought the questions were reasonable.
Speaking as someone at the older, grumpier, more cynical end of the age spectrum I thought those were the questions that needed asking.
Ben handled it all very well.
In fact it made a nice change to hear someone answering the questions they are being asked instead of trying to be evasive or just push out the things they came to say regardless of what the question was. It was a really good interview. |
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 22:10 2 Oct 2026
You might be overthinking what was just a weak attempt at smart-arsery on my part.
FIFA doesn't like politics in football but is ok with nation states owning football clubs.
I don't see how a nation state buying a football club and investing its national prestige and influence in that enterprise is anything other than political.
As for Burnham, I think that's being a bit overblown.
It's true that AB was a Manchester MP and subsequently Mayor of Manchester at the time Abu Dhabi was investing there, but the Conservatives were in power for much of Man City's ascendency and Abu Dhabi couldn't have done much in Manchester if Cameron, Boris, et al weren't all on board with it.
I do think Burnham's comments the other day about the hearing did lean too much in City's favour, but he immediately got plenty of pushback from his own party let alone the opposition.
As for the Saudis and Newcastle? Dunno! But it does again demonstrate how our government risks embarrassing itself by allowing foreign nations to own major clubs in our national sport.
We have been doing business with the Arab nations for many years. Long before they decided to use sports to try and clean up their image. I can't see that all coming to an end just because City's owners have been caught diddling the books. Although if we do start looking seriously at possible criminal charges then that really could blow up into a diplomatic nightmare. [Post edited 2 Oct 22:11]
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 20:05 2 Oct 2026
Fair points.
I had forgotten that Tony Bloom has brought his particular brand of data wizardry to Scotland. Maybe he can crack the Glaswegian duopoly. Although they seem to be cracking nicely without any external pressure.
But whatever became of that promising young Hearts manager?
I had completely forgotten about Atalanta. You got me there. |
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 17:55 2 Oct 2026
So our government can't interfere if a foreign government wants to buy one of our clubs.
I think FIFA might need to take a look at it's rules 
However this all pans out I think the global football rules need to be rewritten to prevent sovereign ownership of football clubs. In fact it's crazy that it's allowed at all. In most countries around the world football is the national sport. |
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Reply | WLS podcast
at 16:59 2 Oct 2026
I thought this was a really good conversation.
And the best WLS podcast for quite a while.
Ben certainly looks young but he seemed very assured and handled himself very well.
My only criticism of Ben would be that he does seem very uncritically onboard with a lot of what the club is doing with the DS - except when it got to the Kolli debate at the end where he is clearly a big fan of RK.
DM and KG asked a lot of really good, really tough questions and Ben stood his ground and gave as good as he got, so well done to him.
Definitely worth a watch/listen. [Post edited 2 Oct 17:02]
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 11:28 2 Oct 2026
I doubt Richard III ever said:
"A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!"
But it's the version everyone remembers.
Bloody Shakespeare. What a chancer! :-) |
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 11:11 2 Oct 2026
To be honest I was wondering about that myself.
But it's a good quote even if Sir Alex didn't say it! |
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 11:06 2 Oct 2026
City owners are losing track of what lies they told and where they told them
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 11:01 2 Oct 2026
Can't believe I'm quoting Alex Ferguson but I think he gives a good answer to this:
"Once you change the financial strength of one club, you don’t only change that club.
You change where players go.
You change what everybody else has to pay.
You change which manager gets which footballer.
You change title races before the first ball is kicked."
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 10:55 2 Oct 2026
The government has finally woken up to the possibility of tax evasion by City.
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 10:52 2 Oct 2026
They're throwing the kitchen sink at it
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 09:12 2 Oct 2026
If you read the Dan Neidle thing he does consider if City have committed tax evasion which is a criminal offence and he also suggests other offences City might have committed:
https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2026/
"Are there other criminal offences?
This report focuses on Mr Mancini’s consultancy arrangement, but the facts set out in the decision suggest that the police should be looking at whether non-tax offences were committed.
False accounting
Section 17 of the Theft Act 1968 makes it an offence dishonestly to falsify accounting documents, with a view to gain for oneself or another, or an intention to cause loss to another.
The Commission found the accounts materially misstated income and expenses: paragraph 101. It found intentional concealment (paragraph 109) and that City knew the accounts did not give a true and fair view, or alternatively was reckless about that (paragraph 114).
Again, the crucial legal question to determine whether an offence was committed is whether the relevant personnel at City were “dishonest” (see the discussion above).
However, there is an additional challenge for a false accounting prosecution: did Manchester City’s personnel act with a “view to gain”? Manchester City may have ultimately been looking to make a gain from its cheating, but in the short term, its actions lost money rather than made it.26
Approving accounts which do not comply with the law
Section 393 of the Companies Act 2006 requires directors to be satisfied that accounts give a true and fair view before approving them. Under section 414(4), a director can commit an offence where non-compliant accounts are approved, the director knew of or was reckless about the non-compliance, and failed to take reasonable steps to secure compliance or prevent approval.
There’s also a specific company law offence that could apply: the accounts were then filed with Companies House, and it’s an offence to knowingly or recklessly deliver materially misleading, false or deceptive documents to Companies House.
The Commission found that nine seasons’ financial statements failed to give a true and fair view (paragraph 101) and that this was intentional (paragraph 114). That was, of course, to the civil rather than criminal standard, but on the face of it, there seems a strong case that a prosecution should be considered.
Misleading the auditors
Under section 501(1) of the Companies Act, knowingly or recklessly giving an auditor a materially misleading, false or deceptive statement can be an offence where it concerns information or explanations the auditor required, or was entitled to require.
The Commission says that even City’s auditors remained unaware of the disguised funding scheme (see footnote 7 to paragraph 68). It also describes documents generated to conceal the true arrangements from regulators and auditors (see paragraph 78).
Again, there seems a strong case for a criminal investigation here, subject again to the point that the decision was to the civil and not the criminal standard.
We are, once more, not saying that any particular individuals committed an offence. We do not know. We are saying there appear to be strong grounds for a criminal investigation." |
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 08:31 2 Oct 2026
As Danny Blanchflower said:
"The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game is about glory, it is about doing things in style and with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom."
If you don't strip City of their titles you are allowing them to keep the glory.
City fans will soon forget about how the titles were won. And if fans of other clubs remind them of it they will just say "you're jealous!"
Every fan of every other club who remembers that era of City dominance will resent City and their cheating until their dying day.
If you want City to cleanse their reputation and give the club back to the real fans then you need to remove the tainted glory. |
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 21:14 1 Oct 2026
And on the subject of European football.........
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 20:54 1 Oct 2026
That's an interesting point.
FIFA is just an administrative body. Its one big commercial asset is the World Cup and once every four years it has a huge tournament that generates a mountain of money, and the rest of the time it loses money (or so I understand).
Part of me is surprised that the big English clubs haven't tried to negotiate their own TV deals. And maybe one day they will. But would it really be in their interests?
The reason American sports try to level the playing field is because they realised a long time ago that people won't watch if the same couple of teams hoovers up all the big prizes.
You could say that's what we have got already in England, except that maybe five or six clubs have a chance of winning something and maybe as much as half the PL now has the consolation prize of qualifying for Europe - not you Spurs! 
The recent Liverpool takeover valued the club at $5bn. That's more than double the combined value of all 72 EFL clubs!
And if you look around Europe.......
It's years since an Italian club won a major European trophy, and their once mighty national team has failed to reach the last three World Cup finals.
Bayern dominate German football, and their national team is also in the doldrums.
Portugal produces good footballers but most of their top players play abroad and their domestic league is woeful. Osman Kakay and Hevertton Santos have both been able to get a game there in recent years. And in the two years Gyokeres spent out there he seemed to score every time he walked onto the pitch.
In France you've got a great PSG team, and not much else.
In Scotland - well do I even need to say it 
The one big exception is perhaps Spain, but they invest heavily in high quality coaching at youth level. probably more than anyone else.
The 'elite' European leagues (and Scotland) are all becoming less competitive as more and more wealth gets concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.
Eventually the game will eat itself. |
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 18:57 1 Oct 2026
Fair.
But with some significant provisos:
1. Italy has had some big clubs but Juventus has always been head and shoulders above the rest. For them to be cut down to size was a very big deal for the whole country (except their hometown of Turin where they like to stick it to the man).
Man City are a wealthy club but have never been the biggest. Cutting them down to size is not going to have the same impact on the standing of the PL that Juve represented in Serie A.
2. Italian football has had more than one major scandal in recent decades. There was Juventus, at least two organised betting scandals, and drug scandals on top of that:
https://www.theguardian.com/fo
None of that has yet happened in the PL, Although as Clive has suggested, it beggars belief that no one ever fails a drug test!
3. Everyone knows that Man City has been cooking the books. the only surprise is that it has taken this long to prove it. But none of those rumours has stopped the TV deals getting bigger and bigger.
4. Having finally exposed Man City's cheating I think it would now do more harm to the PL's reputation to let them off lightly than it would to get medieval on their sorry carcass.
I completely agree with your wish that the PL sanctions them as hard as they can. |
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 17:22 1 Oct 2026
I thought Tonda Eckert's Spygate hearing was going to be the big entertainment |
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