Chris Ferguson 💙

I have not seen a better explanation of Manchester City's case.

🚨 Dortmund sporting director on the record about the 2022 Haaland sale: “Manchester City never wanted the real number out. That was the first condition they put on the table. Not the release clause everyone printed. The full package. Officially it was reported as £51 million because that was the figure written into the clause and that was the figure they asked us to stand by. Internally it was a completely different conversation. When you add the guaranteed payments, the structured extras and what was agreed around the player’s camp, we were looking at something close to €250 million all-in. That is more than PSG paid for Neymar in 2017. City knew that. We knew that. They did not want Europe talking about it. They were very clear: if Dortmund confirmed anything above the clause, the deal would become politically messy for them. So there was a private understanding. We stay silent on the real total. They stay silent. A few people in the media were steered toward the £51m line and that became the official story I am not going to sit here four years later and pretend we sold the best young striker in Europe for pocket money. We did not. City paid what they had to pay to get him. They just did not want the world to see the receipt.”

Manchester City’s reiteration of their “confidence and intent in proving the club’s innocence” given their “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence” is incredibly at odds with their own behaviour and the intensity in which they blocked the Premier League’s process of investigation at every step since December 2018. The scale of their obstructing was revealed in a July 2021 British court judgment. City simply refused to supply information and documents requested by the league, which then issued a disciplinary complaint in August 2019. The club challenged the disciplinary process and the commission that was set up. The league proposed an ad hoc procedure of appointing a new commission, but City objected to that too. The PL were forced to bring legal arbitration against the club, to be decided by a tribunal of three senior lawyers. City countered the PL had no power to do that, and challenged the impartiality of the tribunal. That was rejected and the club were again ordered to submit all the documentation and info. City then appealed to the high court to strike the tribunal down. In March 2021, a judge ruled against the club and that her findings should be published. City unsuccessfully fought against it being made public knowledge; the judgement published in July illustrated just how hard and long they resisted providing information. With all that confidence, intent and irrefutable evidence, why the YEARS of non-cooperation and active, intensive blocking?

There is a God🤬

Trump on Balogun: "I saw the play, and I'm a person that loves sports ... that wasn't a foul. That wasn't even an infraction ... this referee, who is a little bit suspect if you check his past. He made a call that nobody could believe ... he's our best player, or one of our best players. And he gave him a red card. I didn't know what that meant ... yes, I asked for a review by FIFA."