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

The degree to which you're downplaying this is a bit mad. The media are not talking about the 115 as much as we'd like - but it's still talked about enough that anyone following football to any degree is aware of it. It was being talked about on peak drive-time national radio just today sure. It's been talked about on every single football podcast, on the likes of Neville/Carra/Wright/Keane's Stick to Football show, and everything in between. There isn't a single sports news outlet that hasn't covered it to one degree or another. We'd all love it to be shouted from the rooftops week in week out, which it's not, but to suggest that there isn't broad awareness of the cheating charges is wrong. And of course for those who are not at all aware of football, a Man City sponsorship connection doesn't carry any value.

The Juventus example is one that I think backs up this point in my favor too - you don't even have to be a follower of a league, or to specifically follow a story, to be aware of the 'stink of cheating' through being generally aware of broad football news. Sure just yesterday you were arguing that even the hint of a comparison of something was enough for it to stick and cause damage.

Any sponsorship negotiations that didn't fight for a lower cost by bringing up the 115 as a mitigating factor would be idiotic. Because obviously sponsors generally look for value. But instead we've seen the rates rise and rise and rise. Once again, odd, eh?

wonder who City will buy this summer for a £100m? Bruno Gamerias? Paqueta?

Why not both??

Ah come on, they're not Chelsea.

Anyone who is aware of Man City being serial winners (which is what brings sponsors value) will also likely be aware of the 115, where-ever they're getting the news on the one, there will have been reference to the other.

The radio bit was on Today FM today, drive-time (which falls oh so nicely into my drive to the office over here), Matt Cooper chatting about the weekends results with a football journo and it came up, as it very often does because it's fundamentally engrained in many of these conversations, especially coming up each year when the actual 'winning' is done. It's just part of the football conversation.

I didn't say anything about any magazines, I'm talking about all the places people are exposed to sports news - SkySports, ESPN, New York times, Bild, Marca, Corriere Dello Sport, Egypt Today, Al Jazeera, Globo in Brazil… that's a pretty international cross-continental array of huge news outlets talking about Man City as cheaters. It's a thing that would be difficult to not be exposed to, if you're someone who is at all interested in football - which, again, is the type of person a sponsor is paying to influence.

I'm kinda surprised this has to be explained… like, they generated huge news when UEFA banned them from the Champions League for 2 years, then made big news when that was rolled back on a technicality, then made news when the Premier League announced their own investigation, then generated absolutely massive 'shockwave-level' news when the 115 charges were made.

It's been 5 continuous years of these stories connecting Man City with cheating now. So it's definitely noteworthy that it doesn't seem to affect the supposedly soaring value of their deals the way it would affect any other clubs.

One of the conclusions one could come to, is that these massive sponsorships are not all they're cracked up to be - which just so happens to be what a whole bunch of those charges levelled against them relate to.

City will end up getting a one window transfer ban and that ban will land on the winter window when they never buy a player anyway. That will be the only punishment they will get along with a stern warning letter. The premier League, The F.A and the British Tory Government are all in the pocket of Middle Eastern oil money.

Regards,

P.

Do you know where I heard about all this stuff? Right here because like lots of people I just watch matches. I don't spend time on large social media sites either.

When I heard about it I then looked up all.this stuff.

And how many people listen to radio stations nowadays? I either have music on or a podcast.

I read ESPN pretty much every day. I'm generally checking up scores and lineups etc. from multiple sports. When I go onto the site there's headlines which I browse and not once have I seen anything about City and charges. Today there's nothing about who won the premier league or Klopp. There is an article about Salah which suggests he's staying with Liverpool. Why is the Salah article there? Simply because he's one of the most talked about footballers on the planet.

As regards their current sponsorship, I'm not disagreeing with you on that. My point was that global companies love to be involved with winners, I wasn't being specific to Manchester City.

And no, I don't think anyone worries about charges. I'm sure they have contracts which say that they can stop paying sponsorship if the club is found guilty of any breach and punished.

And we all know that City aren't going to be punished because the Premier league can't afford, monetarily, to take on the City owners. It'll end up with the Premier league having huge legal bills and City will offer to pay them and accept a large fine.

If the Premier league do end up sanctioning them it'll be a breath of fresh air in UK but I'm pretty confident it'll never happen.

ESPN's football page?

Here is the main page, the one most people look at.

The Salah story is gone already.

You can’t possibly believe that a US-centric sports websites main page is indicative of the level of interest among football fans. Picking this one specifically(while in the same breath ignoring the football section of the site) seems wilfully disingenuous.

Most publications covering Citys title wins include at least a comment on it - it’s been discussed in print, on radio, on podcasts, and has dominated social media - r/soccers top 2 links today are in reference to it.

Everyone with any interest in the PL is aware of it, and the longer it goes on the more it will be brought up.

And given that certain Sky Sports presenters are happy to talk about the 115 charges on other TV networks, platforms or podcasts but not talk about it too frequently on Sky Sports itself suggests that they have been clearly instructed not to, for whatever reason.

Where is it being discussed as big football news? In the UK, Ireland and where else?

For some reason, you, in isolation, have decided that this is the cross you die on. 99.9% of posters here know what is going on, understand the cause and effect behind Man City's success, but, because its not on the front page of a US-centric feed (NFL, NBA, NHL, arrested US golfer) you think its not there!

I got this on eagle traits "Eagles are independent creatures, often preferring solitary journeys and relying on their own capabilities." Hmmm…..

Was the note not about moving on around the extent to which the charges are news? Surely posting a live blog article from the Ethiad on Sunday is fully appropriate as the league season closes?

Are the Spurs & Chelsea players who will be involved in Euro 24 gone with their squad to Australia?

I might be very naive here but are trips like this really that lucrative? A one off match about 15km away in a country with a population of 26m and soccer being down the list of most popular sports.

God those post season Friendlies must be the most stupid things to pop up in football recently. Along with the friendlies United & Liverpool have played in the Aviva a week before the season starts/community shield weekend and they’ve a bunch of the reserves/youth players.

Just thinking about Salah. He seems to be intent on staying. It'd be great for Slot if he does stay a year. Could it also be a monetary decision? I'd imagine he'd get a massive signing on bonus in Saudi as a free agent.

Running down his contract is the best move for Salah but not the best move for Liverpool.
If they sold him for 80m+ (and his wages) they could start to focus on getting in a couple of replacements.
It would allow a lot of room around FFP.

I think Liverpool can spend around £300m this summer and still be in the green for FFP. They're very healthy in those calculations atm, and don't need to worry about needing to bring money in.

There's some reports that an unnamed club have paid Brighton's release clause for De Zerbi, and that's why he left.

De Zebri to Brighton lite.