General Premier League Thread 2023-24 Mod Note in op 27/6/23 And 21/05/24

There's very little chance the players aren't aware of what's going on.

The players are unfortunately stained. But handsomely rewarded so do they care?

If City are found guilty and lose titles the players can blame nobody but themselves.

No player who has moved to City in the last 3/4/5 season and can claim they had no idea

you’re right. Some people do come up with stupid stuff. But not this time. The club are cheating. Lance cheated. It’s a perfectly fine comparison. They are most likely still cheating. Those payments *** gets for “consultancy” work….allegations of jacked up deals….

Lol.

This is the maddest thread I've read in a while. Financial doping like City have done is completely akin to what to what Armstrong did, and to argue otherwise is just pig-ignorance.

City financially cheated by paying through different channels, and hiding money. Whether its with drugs or with money, Armstrong and City both elevated themselves above the playing field through cheating ways.

City would not have the squad they do now if they didn't cheat. The cheating allowed them to bench players that would be walk in's into most PL squads, so they are able to rotate and rest far better than any other team. Remember "Pep Roulette"? That existed because of the wealth of riches on their bench.

That in turn has led to success on the field, which makes it EVEN EASIER to get these players on massive money.

It is quite heartbreaking as a fan of sport to see this level of cheating going on, and no one taking it seriously, or doing anything about it. Personally, I think everytime City play away the home crowds should be booing every touch of the ball, every time City have it. Instead, I fear there's a resignation going on. People have stopped caring as they feel as powerless as the FA comes across.

Ha ha ha - never saw this.

I'd say, yeah, when you're coining it in like the lads are, you definitely feel like you have to play the lottery !!!!!

The Armstrong comparison is absolutely relevant. Everyone knows what's going on, and eventually it'll come out.

Michelle Smith is still officially recorded as winning 3 Gold medals in 1996. Nobody in Ireland or in the Sport recognise them as anything other than the result of cheating. Same with City’s trophies for me.

Nobody comes from nowhere to do what she did. No team comes from where City were to do what they did.

Are you suggesting that they only broke the rules to get themselves in a position where they no longer needed to break those same rules? Perhaps that is why they have been failing to cooperate with the investigation.

Its particularly laughable when you consider that for a lot of dopers they are doping outside of competition to accelerate their training, rather than during competition itself.

So how stupid would it be to claim that the doped preparation had no effect on the race itself. To offer that "They weren't doping during the race" as if it mattered. It would be really stupid to claim that.

Yet here we are.

Much like UEFA, they may have felt they had all of the necessary pieces but then the carefully planned charges are made and the process starts. Suddenly the Premier League team find themselves completely outmatched. They're facing off against solicitors who get paid a lot more than they do and have access to an array of manpower and resources the PL team could only dream about. Every single aspect of the charges are disputed, and even the bits that are simple and obvious are being contested for time limitations or other reasons of admissibility. Every meeting organised with City employees to take a deposition is constantly delayed and rescheduled. They take the maximum time allowed to furnish documents and / or request extensions constantly. The process previously agreed is constantly questioned and renegotiated for "fairness".

Finally, they bury the PL team in paper. PL ask for a document and they get boxes and boxes and boxes in return. PL ask for an email, they get a dump of all emails for all employees from an entire department for the whole period in question. They don't want to omit anything, they say. It's not up to them to decide what the PL may find to be relevant.

This isn't the Hollywood movie where the plucky small practice lawyer and his talented assistant with the truth on their side magically overcome these obstacles through sheer ingenuity. The longer it drags on, the more the resource disparity impacts the process. Progress is glacial and the goalposts are constantly shifted. Meanwhile operational realities eat away at the resolve to see it through. City have won another title, another year has passed since the window under examination. The considerations around revenue and TV deals and so on have deepened.

In the end, the PL loses or - at best - get a proposal from City for them to accept a handful of charges for a hefty (but token) fine. The victory is total, money wins.

I'd guess those internal rules and internal penalties must still comply with the external law of the land, even international law.

As a trite example in your job you may break an internal rule, be subject to an internal inquiry & penalty, and ultimately an internal firing. But you still have recourse to external bodies at each step of the way who'll decide whether all that internal stuff is legal, was done via proper procedure, was justified etc. The obvious example being a Workplace Tribunal to appeal a firing. But imagine unlimited wealth (many 1000s of multiples of that of your employer) - you could use those external forces to absolutely halt the internal process in it's tracks from the start.

Classic!