Whale.io 🐳 | ⚽ English Premier League Season: 2026/2027

[JollyGood]

I just proved that they were and Pep defended them publicly - Pep knew about the Aguero and Halaand backyard deals. No one is innocent.

It probably took a lot of planning for one club to have cheated the whole of the Premier League and UEFA over a period of a decade. The hacked emails that were released only had data to 2018 therefore it is possible Manchester City were cheating subsequently too. Obviously Manchester City will appeal but they will be found guilty and in that case should receive a punishment that will ensure no other club breaks the rules again.

If Man City were a forum member, they’d have -1000 Trust Rating right now. The level of fraud and cheating is off the scale.

They must be heavily punished.

The Premier League clubs do not want Manchester City to be relegated to the Championship, they want a much bigger punishment. I think Liverpool under Klopp finished second twice in the Premier League when Manchester City won the title. Liverpool fans must be furious at how Manchester City cheated their way to the top.

I knew this was going to happen. I wasn't expecting them to give in easily, but denying all these claims is crazy. For an entire group of administrators to openly deny the allegations against them, calling it an unsafe ruling and making intentions to pursue available appeal routes further proves, with the evidences on ground, how greedy and untouchable they think they are.

They claimed they had irrefutable evidence of their innocence yet never presented anything to the independent commission. If they have used £830 million in overinflated contracts to cheat the fair financial rules and also made under the table payments to Mancini and others, then there could be tax implications including tax evasion and deliberately filing incorrect accounts with the UK government.

It seems as though the Manchester City owners thought they would get away without punishment from the Premier League. Where UEFA had a statutory time limit and was unable to make a case against Manchester City, the Premier League has no time limitations. Now they will receive the biggest punishment for operating the biggest scam the Premier League has ever seen.

[tokeweed]

^  Oof, Maresca was involved?  Damn...  This is gonna be a shit show.  I wonder up to what extent was Guardiola's involvement on these shenanigans with Man City.

But yeah...  Overall this is sad for Man City fans and sad for English football fans.    And they were trying to build a sustainable football club too, from the academy to the senior squad.  The vision was to get most of their players from the academy like a proper football club.  I guess that all goes out the window now.

The financial breaches began years( 2009) before Pep arrived in 2016 and the main investigation covered from 2009- 2017/18 seasons-  so it's good to say, Pep inherited a squad built on corruption, continue improving the club on the same corruption for two more years before the whistle blower got into their system.

Remember, Everton got a 9 points deduction for inflating their revenue by only 25m; City inflated their revenue by 900m so yeah it's going to be a hell of a point deductions.

No, all English fans wanted them gone- I was sad for them but no more, we're also victim of their wrongdoing.

Whenever the punishment is handed out to Manchester City, there really is no evidence to suggest Guardiola or his assistants (Maresca, Arteta and others) were involved in anything nefarious. Nevertheless, the success of the club was built on cheating therefore nobody associated with Manchester City should look at the trophies they won as something to be proud of.

I just proved that they were and Pep defended them publicly - Pep knew about the Aguero and Halaand backyard deals. No one is innocent.

Speaking of Aguero...  There's a meme floating around with him giving the winning goal against QPR (omg I still remember it like yesterday) but it's played in reverse.  Lolol.

But yeah, I think the shenanigans happening in the club were more on the side of the top brass rather than the club manager and his crew.  I mean how could they really get into the accounting of it all and bloat revenue.

[JollyGood]

Basically that "Aguerrroooo" goal was synonymous with Manchester City winning their first Premier League and their period of sustained success. Now that goal and commentary associated with it will forever be connected with how Manchester City cheated to win their first Premier League.

I was reading the latest news and there is no indication Manchester City have submitted an appeal against the decision to find them guilty on all charges. They have until tomorrow to appeal the decision and even though all indications are they will appeal, they have not actually submitted it. Now it is reported that their main sponsor is contemplating legal action against the Premier League because neither them nor the independent commission asked them to explain their alleged involvement in the scheme behind the scam.

It seems as though Manchester City will try to drag this through the High Court because it could take several years before a judgement and if that judgement goes against whatever Manchester City want then they could appeal to the Supreme Court. All of this is a time consuming process that most independent observers would probably believe is designed specifically to avoid punishment for as long as they can. By the time a punishment is handed down, it could be 4-5 years from now and until happens and by then Manchester City could theoretically have added a couple more Premier League titles.

In an ideal world, Manchester City would not appeal the decision and would accept the sanctions placed by the independent commission. That scenario will not happen as Manchester City will submit an appeal. The commission has to announce the punishment by 12 weeks from the appeal therefore everybody should know by the end of January 2027 what punishment Manchester City will face.

I believe the Premier League owners work on a 75% consensus basis therefore of the 20 teams only 15 teams are required to make a binding decision. If 15 teams decide to expel Manchester City then I doubt Manchester City would be able to overturn that decision in any court. Exactly what will happen depends on many different factors starting with Manchester City appealing the decision.

Speaking of Aguero...  There's a meme floating around with him giving the winning goal against QPR (omg I still remember it like yesterday) but it's played in reverse.  Lolol.

But yeah, I think the shenanigans happening in the club were more on the side of the top brass rather than the club manager and his crew.  I mean how could they really get into the accounting of it all and bloat revenue.

[igebotz]

Speaking of Aguero...  There's a meme floating around with him giving the winning goal against QPR (omg I still remember it like yesterday) but it's played in reverse.  Lolol.

But yeah, I think the shenanigans happening in the club were more on the side of the top brass rather than the club manager and his crew.  I mean how could they really get into the accounting of it all and bloat revenue.

I also just learned that the City's current Chairman was then Bacelona Vice chairman when they paid bribe money to companies linked to former refereeing official José María Enríquez Negreira to manipulate refs decision - there's no final verdict on that yet.

The man had a dubious history of  playing outside the books to win.
______
There was too many controversy surrounding the Aguero's moment game against QPR when Joey Barton intentionally got himself a red card in that game to give leverage to Manchester city ( he was invested for match fixing and banned for 12 games for misconduct. It's beginning to make more sense now..

[tokeweed]

Joey Barton hated it in QPR, that's why he did what he did so that the club would get rid of him.  In an interview a year or two later, he said that the decision for the move to QPR was mostly because of money and that he has never done that before...  So you could imagine how unhappy he was when he was at the club.

And QPR was a badly run club even after the Malaysian billionaire took over that time.  I don't even think he owns the club anymore.  He also had an F1 team which he had to let go.  Lol.

[igebotz]

Joey Barton hated it in QPR, that's why he did what he did so that the club would get rid of him.  In an interview a year or two later, he said that the decision for the move to QPR was mostly because of money and that he has never done that before...  So you could imagine how unhappy he was when he was at the club.

And QPR was a badly run club even after the Malaysian billionaire took over that time.  I don't even think he owns the club anymore.  He also had an F1 team which he had to let go.  Lol.

Tony Fernandes left the club since 2023, he was a success hungry bastard; came in, bought every old legends over 30 from the top 6 clubs and placed them on a China-like wages and all they managed was a league cup final if I remember and correctly.

For Joey Barton he was the most hated, dirtiest football of all time..he was a mess everywhere he went..

[JollyGood]

I am not sure how much of that final match of the season was down to bribes. QPR were winning 2-0 before Manchester City made that extraordinary comeback to win the match 3-2.

After Manchester City equalised, the game restarted at 2-2 and QPR immediately kicked the ball to the Manchester City players. It allowed them to make a final surge forward and that was when they scored the third goal. I always felt there was something suspicious about it but what can be proven?

I doubt Mark Hughes (the ex-Manchester United player and ex-Manchester City manager was managing QPR at the time) was involved in anything suspicious. He was furious when the match ended in a loss for his team. Ex-Liverpool and ex-Manchester City players were celebrating with Manchester City players after the match and that seemed very odd at the time and still does.

There was too many controversy surrounding the Aguero's moment game against QPR when Joey Barton intentionally got himself a red card in that game to give leverage to Manchester city ( he was invested for match fixing and banned for 12 games for misconduct. It's beginning to make more sense now..

[igebotz]

I am not sure how much of that final match of the season was down to bribes. QPR were winning 2-0 before Manchester City made that extraordinary comeback to win the match 3-2.

After Manchester City equalised, the game restarted at 2-2 and QPR immediately kicked the ball to the Manchester City players. It allowed them to make a final surge forward and that was when they scored the third goal. I always felt there was something suspicious about it but what can be proven?

I doubt Mark Hughes (the ex-Manchester United player and ex-Manchester City manager was managing QPR at the time) was involved in anything suspicious. He was furious when the match ended in a loss for his team. Ex-Liverpool and ex-Manchester City players were celebrating with Manchester City players after the match and that seemed very odd at the time and still does.

It's hard to prove anything but we all saw what happened but the Aguero's moment was just too good and it blinded everyone's suspicions about the game and besides most of use wanted City to end SAF's dominance too. 

You don't necessarily need the manager to be on board with a match fixing plan- most of the time all you need is only a few players to make it happen and that's all.

[JollyGood]

I am stating this about the Manchester City vs Queens Park Rangers match but as a generic rules, I think i just one player is taking bribes to throw a match then that is probably enough to affect the outcome. You are right, football fans wanted a new challenger to Manchester United (or a team to completely surpass them) therefore most fans probably overlooked any concerns and questions.

Even if there is no evidence to link bribes/cheating in the 2012 match against Queens Park Rangers, what cannot be deflected in any capacity is that Manchester City have been caught cheating on an industrial scale. I hope the punishment is appropriate for the 115 breaches. After all, if the sanctions equate to just a financial penalty and a few words of warning then it will not be a deterrent to other teams. On the contrary, it might even encourage other teams to do the same as they know they can absorb the so-called punishment.

It's hard to prove anything but we all saw what happened but the Aguero's moment was just too good and it blinded everyone's suspicions about the game and besides most of use wanted City to end SAF's dominance too. 

You don't necessarily need the manager to be on board with a match fixing plan- most of the time all you need is only a few players to make it happen and that's all.

[igebotz]

Even if there is no evidence to link bribes/cheating in the 2012 match against Queens Park Rangers, what cannot be deflected in any capacity is that Manchester City have been caught cheating on an industrial scale. I hope the punishment is appropriate for the 115 breaches. After all, if the sanctions equate to just a financial penalty and a few words of warning then it will not be a deterrent to other teams. On the contrary, it might even encourage other teams to do the same as they know they can absorb the so-called punishment.

It's becoming more political and at this stage they might just give them a fine and let them walk -  the UAE are taking it very personal and are going extra hard on the UK prime minister. They made this comment;

"the UAE has reportedly warned that the Premier League's treatment of City could affect UK–UAE relations and investment"

UK prime Minister would always favour the side of business over club business that won't benefit him in anyway.

[JollyGood]

I also read somewhere that the UAE were hinting they would no longer invest in the UK if Manchester City were punished. I think there are serious allegations that the Manchester City owners might be trying to use their position close to the UK government to affect the outcome but these are supposed to be independent commissions.

Speculation about how close the current Prime Minister is/was to the Manchester City owners is being discussed in the media as he was Mayor of Greater Manchester from May 2017 until June 2026. I just cannot see how Manchester City escape without getting expelled from the Premier League as that is a fitting punishment for serious prolonged periods of cheating. I doubt the UK government will approach the independent commission to influence the decision.

It's becoming more political and at this stage they might just give them a fine and let them walk -  the UAE are taking it very personal and are going extra hard on the UK prime minister. They made this comment;

"the UAE has reportedly warned that the Premier League's treatment of City could affect UK–UAE relations and investment"

UK prime Minister would always favour the side of business over club business that won't benefit him in anyway.

[Sandra_hakeem]

Even if there is no evidence to link bribes/cheating in the 2012 match against Queens Park Rangers, what cannot be deflected in any capacity is that Manchester City have been caught cheating on an industrial scale. I hope the punishment is appropriate for the 115 breaches. After all, if the sanctions equate to just a financial penalty and a few words of warning then it will not be a deterrent to other teams. On the contrary, it might even encourage other teams to do the same as they know they can absorb the so-called punishment.

It's becoming more political and at this stage they might just give them a fine and let them walk -  the UAE are taking it very personal and are going extra hard on the UK prime minister. They made this comment;

"the UAE has reportedly warned that the Premier League's treatment of City could affect UK–UAE relations and investment"

I'm not surprised at all. I said it in one of my post that things are going to get political and in a jiffy, all they would get is a huge fine and the case would go cold. The rules are made for the poor and and infamous clubs, not the likes of City. The Orwellian theory described this type of segregation. Now they filed a formal appeal against the independent commission's ruling with threats that Abu Dhabi may disengage private investments worth billion in the future.

I also read somewhere that the UAE were hinting they would no longer invest in the UK if Manchester City were punished.

I think there are serious allegations that the Manchester City owners might be trying to use their position close to the UK government to affect the outcome but these are supposed to be independent commissions.

That's exactly what I meant when I said I wasn't expecting that they give in easily. Trump did his and although this is a more serious case, City is several millions of investments and the owners can't sleep on it.

[igebotz]

I also read somewhere that the UAE were hinting they would no longer invest in the UK if Manchester City were punished. I think there are serious allegations that the Manchester City owners might be trying to use their position close to the UK government to affect the outcome but these are supposed to be independent commissions.

Speculation about how close the current Prime Minister is/was to the Manchester City owners is being discussed in the media as he was Mayor of Greater Manchester from May 2017 until June 2026. I just cannot see how Manchester City escape without getting expelled from the Premier League as that is a fitting punishment for serious prolonged periods of cheating. I doubt the UK government will approach the independent commission to influence the decision.

Legally the UK government cannot influence the outcome of the independent commission's decisions or order the commission to give certain punishments but what they CAN do is try to buying out some of the top guys in the commission but I doubt that would work.

One thing I know is City will fight tooths and teeths to make sure automatic relegation is not on the menu and that is achievable

I'm not surprised at all. I said it in one of post that things are going to get political and in a jiffy, all they would get is a huge fine and the case would go cold. The rules are made for the poor and and infamous clubs, not the like of City. The Orwellian theory described this type of segregation. Now they filed a formal appeal against the independent commission's ruling with threats that Abu Dhabi may disengage private investments worth billion in the future.

Manchester City is biggest UAE investment in sports - I knew they were going to throw in politics and try to blackmail everyone involved to get them a softer punishments.

[tokeweed]

Finally we have the EPL back this coming weekend.  I mean wtf is it with a couple of weeks of international football that nobody really cares about most of the time.  Maybe do a week...  But two? 

But yeah, I've started using AI for making my degen parlays for me in the UFC thread.  Lol.  Might start doing the same for the EPL too.  Just gotta find the right sites to get the stats to feed AI.

[Sandra_hakeem]

I also read somewhere that the UAE were hinting they would no longer invest in the UK if Manchester City were punished. I think there are serious allegations that the Manchester City owners might be trying to use their position close to the UK government to affect the outcome but these are supposed to be independent commissions.

Speculation about how close the current Prime Minister is/was to the Manchester City owners is being discussed in the media as he was Mayor of Greater Manchester from May 2017 until June 2026. I just cannot see how Manchester City escape without getting expelled from the Premier League as that is a fitting punishment for serious prolonged periods of cheating. I doubt the UK government will approach the independent commission to influence the decision.

Legally the UK government cannot influence the outcome of the independent commission's decisions or order the commission to give certain punishments but what they CAN do is try to buying out some of the top guys in the commission but I doubt that would work.

One thing I know is City will fight tooths and teeths to make sure automatic relegation is not on the menu and that is achievable

That's exactly what we're expecting. Do you know the influence of "oil money"? Put that into perspective, that's not just any type of money, that's Elon type of money. it's a transcending type of money that has given hope even to their fifth generations unborn.

 Why do you even think City owners decided to pull this whole financial scheme even when they knew it was against the rules? I don't think they see the club as an investment because they literally ran on a huge loss for 5years straight, and if not caught they weren't bothered by the losses. What type of investment is that?

I'm wondering where Rui Pinto is currently at. Lol

[igebotz]

Finally we have the EPL back this coming weekend.  I mean wtf is it with a couple of weeks of international football that nobody really cares about most of the time.  Maybe do a week...  But two? 

But yeah, I've started using AI for making my degen parlays for me in the UFC thread.  Lol.  Might start doing the same for the EPL too.  Just gotta find the right sites to get the stats to feed AI.

I've been using Grok AI on Dota and Tennis parlays and it's x3 better than I am on those markets/sports - I sometimes use it on a 50-50 football games  to get some good markets out of it. But there's no fun in that...

Why do you even think City owners decided to pull this whole financial scheme even when they knew it was against the rules? I don't think they see the club as an investment because they literally ran on a huge loss for 5years straight, and if not caught they weren't bothered by the losses. What type of investment is that?

I'm wondering where Rui Pinto is currently at. Lol

The UAE uses these business to promote and advertise their other businesses in Europe and to launder money ofcose.

Rui Pinto said he was kicked out of the Portuguese protections and now living somewhere on his own - he created a GoFundMe of $3m target the other day seeking for help.... Some fans are asking him to go take bribes from City and keep quiet next time
.lol 

[Sandra_hakeem]

I'm wondering where Rui Pinto is currently at. Lol

The UAE uses these business to promote and advertise their other businesses in Europe and to launder money ofcose.

Yeahh, that part too. These billionaires, if they're not doing shitty stuffs like buying a portrait or famous painting for millions of dollars just so they can launder as much money as they want, they're buying a football club. The highest level of fraud happens among these billionaires, but they have learnt to use these loophole sometimes to evade taxation.

Rui Pinto said he was kicked out of the Portuguese protections and now living somewhere on his own - he created a GoFundMe of $3m target the other day seeking for help.... Some fans are asking him to go take bribes from City and keep quiet next time
.lol  

The guy was really broke and bored, so he thought to himself --- maybe hacking into some servers to scrutinized some shit would be a fun thing to do. The fans are asking him to go take bribe from the khak khak people? That's such a terrible advice to follow because if they should set their eyes on him, he'll be brutally murdered in seconds. I saw a statement where he said he had received thousands of threats, perhaps from the fans and now he needs government protection laws. Why did his country kick him out?

[igebotz]

The guy was really broke and bored, so he thought to himself --- maybe hacking into some servers to scrutinized some shit would be a fun thing to do. The fans are asking him to go take bribe from the khak khak people? That's such a terrible advice to follow because if they should set their eyes on him, he'll be brutally murdered in seconds. I saw a statement where he said he had received thousands of threats, perhaps from the fans and now he needs government protection laws. Why did his country kick him out?

People were disappointed in how he announced the GoFundme; he said he was dropping a big announcement, got everyone's attention only to announce a  $3m GoFundMe target as the big announcement when FT were expecting some more evidence on City's case. The target amount was outrageous too...

Someone from Portugal isn't happy and decided to kick him out to expose him to more danger - either they got paid to kick him out or someone was benefiting from City's fraudulent deals

[JollyGood]

I'm not surprised at all. I said it in one of my post that things are going to get political and in a jiffy, all they would get is a huge fine and the case would go cold. The rules are made for the poor and and infamous clubs, not the likes of City. The Orwellian theory described this type of segregation. Now they filed a formal appeal against the independent commission's ruling with threats that Abu Dhabi may disengage private investments worth billion in the future.

It still has to be confirmed but if they are using (or intend to try using) their land investment plans as leverage to reduce their punishment. If that is their intention, I am sure that will be leaked and shared by every major news outlet in the world. If this case moves out of the sporting arena to the political arena, it will cause a lot of problems for politicians. If politicians support lesser sanctions against Manchester City, they could lose their jobs.

Legally the UK government cannot influence the outcome of the independent commission's decisions or order the commission to give certain punishments but what they CAN do is try to buying out some of the top guys in the commission but I doubt that would work.

One thing I know is City will fight tooths and teeths to make sure automatic relegation is not on the menu and that is achievable

Without a doubt their main concern must be to avoid being relegated or being expelled from the football league entirely. Regarding the commission, several ex-footballers that have demanded strong action is taken against Manchester City are also stating that nobody knows who the panel of experts were in the independent commission and why it was held in secrecy. I am still quite sure the commission will not be pressured before they announce the punishment, they will hand out an appropriate sanction.

[Sandra_hakeem]

The guy was really broke and bored, so he thought to himself --- maybe hacking into some servers to scrutinized some shit would be a fun thing to do. The fans are asking him to go take bribe from the khak khak people? That's such a terrible advice to follow because if they should set their eyes on him, he'll be brutally murdered in seconds. I saw a statement where he said he had received thousands of threats, perhaps from the fans and now he needs government protection laws. Why did his country kick him out?

People were disappointed in how he announced the GoFundme; he said he was dropping a big announcement, got everyone's attention only to announce a  $3m GoFundMe target as the big announcement when FT were expecting some more evidence on City's case. The target amount was outrageous too...

Really outrageous. Was he even able to get $1000 after the whole drama died down?  I haven't followed the trend to see what the mainstream media carries yet but I think I'll find an update on X later.

Someone from Portugal isn't happy and decided to kick him out to expose him to more danger - either they got paid to kick him out or someone was benefiting from City's fraudulent deals

They don't even need to get paid for that. It could just be another extremist fan who was supposedly going to make billions from the clubs, say prediction sites. Ehh, that says a lot about his people--- if your own can rat you out for a foreigner in a life and death situation like this, it says a lot about the Portuguese.