Now we know why they signed all those players to 8 year deals. Welcome to the championship lads!
It was nice while it lasted.
What new questions? Must be a slow news day at the Guardian
Wait you’re telling me that Chelsea’s meteoric rise to winning trophies, immediately after being acquired by a Russian oligarch who was friends with Putin, is in some way connected to ill gotten gains?
yeah why was this never covered at the time of ownership
It’s a shocker, I know!
They can borrow our trophy cabinet if the league ever does anything about all those plastic trophies they won. It’s spotless just like theirs was before Daddy Russia.
We all knew their success was bullshit, let’s hope this is the nail in the coffin that confirms it.
Time to post another pathetic megathread on your sub.
Arsenal fans had Usmanov owning their club for a long time and begged him to own it fully at times too so it’s always funny when they cry about Abramovich.
And the former shareholders of the club refused to sell any more to him, and passed away before cashing out on a sale to avoid him taking over instead of Kroenke because of his character. Not the same situation at all
They can financially dope all they wish, but the players still have to perform, the manager still has to do a job. Money doesn’t buy competence or success.
You could say the same for chemical doping…
It clearly does. Believing that the wealthiest clubs aren’t consistently they most successful is denying reality.
People always like to point out that City ruined football, but the FA and the other authorities just letting Roman financially dope his way through success was rhe bigger alarm.
None of it matters now. They’ve reaped the benefits and any points deduction doesnt make a difference.
I agree, people in charge are the ones who allowed this to happen in the first place. now it’s a big mess with clubs being in financial doping all over Europe.
Which is why they should be forced to start over. Relegate them to the bottom of the pyramid and remove the titles won.
That is the only fitting punishment for them and city. Just complete death penalty. But they’ll never do, there is zero incentive. The fact is as long as the premier league continues to grow in popularity, people keep going to games and keep watching on tv that is consent for all of this. The message everyone is sending to the premier league is that we love cheating, we are all in favour of the league being uncompetitive and bought by city every single year. Because we keep watching it.
Exactly. They have already reaped the rewards from their cheating and will continue to do it until they actually get a punishment that sets them back so much they can’t just continue to do it.
It was technically legal when Chelsea did it, although they more than Man City or PSG (or collapsing clubs like Leeds or Portsmouth) are the reasons behind the FFP rules.
I think its pretty obvious who is old enough to remember the first few years under Abramovich compared to Man City currently by the level of fury towards Man City cheating.
Chelsea spent double or even triple what their nearest rivals did in 2005 or so. Man City outspend their rivals sure, but not by an insane amount.The real issue is that a team like City “shouldn’t be allowed to spend as much as Man U or Arsenal” which is odd IMO, I think there should be a hard salary/transfer cap to level the playing field, not a “well you were massive before we changed the rules, so you can spend X, but you weren’t as big so can only spend Y”
People can disagree with that if they like, but the fact that Chelsea themselves managed to spend way more “non football income” than Man City, become one of the “big clubs” just before the rules changed, so now are “allowed” to spend more than City, because now their “football income” is huge is just mad to me.
I think there should be a hard salary/transfer cap to level the playing field
While this would ‘level the playing field’, it would just take money from the players and give it to the owners so I don’t think this is obviously a good thing.
If you limit how much can be spent on players, that just means more money going into the owners’ pockets. It’s not like teams are going to lower prices because player salaries are lower.
I suppose there could be more profit sharing, or funds taken for lower leagues/grassroots football, or any number of good causes.
It’s not like teams are going to lower prices because player salaries are lower.
Or perhaps they could put some sort of price cap in place so fans don’t get ripped off. Wouldn’t really work on match tickets as demand is still high now, even at those crazy prices, but replica shirts/merch, things like that.
Obviously you make a good point, but if we were to implement a hard cap, I think they’d also have to implement other plans to stop it simply being money going into the pockets of the owners of the richest clubs (as the smaller clubs wouldn’t be affected by salary caps).
Hell, why not make the teams fan owned, so if there is profits being made, its going to the fans not some billionaire who can’t even be bothered to show up to matches?
We don’t know how much City spent. They’re accused of lying about it.
are “allowed” to spend more than City, because now their “football income” is huge is just mad to me.
tbh the rules aren’t really about fairness. FFP isn’t the real name anyway. It’s about stopping the problem of sugar daddies getting bored and leaving the taxpayer to pick up the pieces.
I thought we kind of know what’s going out (as in wages, transfers etc) through their books and what other teams report. It’s the dodgy money coming in that’s the main issue.
Though imagine that 115 charges, there some on both sides!Either way, even if you want to just make up whatever numbers you feel are right (let’s say Haaland cost 120m for example) I still feel like they’d be short of the mad advantage Chelsea 2005 had. You couldn’t massage the transfer fees to make them double what Man U, Chelsea or whoever spend. Plus it looks like Chelsea were lying all the time anyway.
People always like to point out that City ruined football, but the FA and the other authorities just letting Roman financially dope his way through success was rhe bigger alarm.
Every single big club become success due to financial doping. ManU, Liverpool, Arsenal.
There are no exceptions.
It’s the history of English football. So why would they fight against tradition.
Woah. Chelsea would get mocked plenty for it.
But at the time of the take over there wasn’t FFP and they were still being mocked for the way they became successful by most.
Blackburn did it in a smaller way. Chelsea went nuts and City perfected it.
Chelsea walked financial doping so City could run with it.
I’m sure I read somewhere that relative to transfer fees at the time Chelsea were bankrolled more than City.
Our funds came openly and directly via the owner, there were no FFP issues to try and skirt around at the time. City are funded by fake sponsors in an attempt to bypass FFP.
Did you read the article? Most of these off-book payments are from 2010-2017, after FFP had been introduced.
Yes. Adjusted for inflation, the amount Chelsea spent under Abromovich is insane even compared to City.
I thought the issue is that when Chelsea got taken over, what they did wasn’t “against the rules”
There weren’t any FFP rules.
Earlier the 3 foreigner rule made clubs rely on regional players so they couldn’t just splash money all over.
If there weren’t that rule then Berlusconi would’ve bought the whole Dutch national team
Man City pay a lot to players and management under the table though so this is apples and oranges
The FA and UEFA: Oh No! Anyway…
Throw city and Chelsea in a league with Newcastle and PSG. That can be the true super league.
No one would miss them cunts
You ok, hun?
Gotta let us actually win something first. Then we can be banished to the shadow realm.
Chelsea, City, PSG, Newcastle, Barcelona, Juventus and Spurs.
Spurs haven’t been making these dodgy deals but it’d be funny
I mean, where’s the OG of doping, the RM itself – the only organic thing about them is all the blood it took to fertilise the government that raised them so
4 team league I love it
Add Salzburg, Girona, Leipzig, Leverkusen, Wolfsburg… there are more offenders who will gladly join this project and bring as many fans and morals as the ones above.
Leverkusen and Wolfsburg have nothing in common with the Red Bull clubs. Those two were founded by factory workers of Bayer and Wolksvagen. This is where they get their name and sponsorship from. And lots of other clubs were formed around factories, as they were meant to provide better conditions for workers before clubs went professional. PSV and Sochaux were formed around Phillips and Peugeot. Red Bull just bought clubs and pumped money into them via nefarious means. Leverkusen and Wolfsburg don’t do that and their relations to corporations are historical.
Leverkusen and Wolfsburg don’t do that and their relations to corporations are historical.
I was thinking about adding PSV, but compared to Wolfsburg and Leverkusen they are actually liked and supported in their country. The only reason why Bayer and VW get a pass nowadays is because of RB.
Don’t worry guys, I’m sure the FA, the Premier League, UEFA and FIFA, bastions of sporting integrity, will come together to tackle the corruption of the likes of Chelsea and City any day now.
AC Milan bout to get the biggest fine
Everton hiding behind the furniture in fear too
Just like that rainforest scare a few years back. Our officials saw there was a problem and they fixed it.
cool looking forward to city being docked points in 2040
I want them to get the Juventus Calciopoli special but we all know they’ll go ‘new owners mate, nothing to do with us’ and the EPL will happily forget about it.
Why is it that teams like Chelsea and City can manage to do this in the first place, and then there’s no reprocussion discussions until a decade later?
The FA, Premier League, FIFA - whoever, need to start being more proactive with laws instead of reacting to teams taking the piss.
Something something 115
oh fuck off. If Chelsea spent $10bil and failed nobody would care. Why the fuck clubs with little success can’t become successful? Who cares where’s the money come from? $1 biil to football is far far better than $1 bil to guns/rpg/killing children.