🧵 THREAD: Manchester City, the charges, the evidence, & how justice was delayed. Manchester City weren’t charged because rivals complained or because they 'spent big'. They were charged because evidence shows a decade-long system designed to hide owner funding, inflate revenue & deceive & obstruct investigations. The Premier League’s case didn’t appear overnight. It began in late 2018, triggered by Football Leaks documents - internal emails, invoices, contracts - that contradicted what City had been telling UEFA & the Premier League for years. Those emails are the backbone of everything that followed. At the centre of the case is a simple allegation: Manchester City repeatedly disguised owner funding as commercial revenue. FFP rules require sponsorship income to be real, independent, and market value. What the emails suggest is that City’s biggest 'sponsors' weren’t paying what City claimed - Abu Dhabi was. Take Etihad as an example. Leaked emails show City executives discussing Etihad paying only a fraction of headline sponsorship deals, with the shortfall quietly topped up by Abu Dhabi government-linked entities. One email explicitly references ensuring funds 'come through the correct channels' so they are not detected as separate sources of funding. That is the definition of disguised equity. This wasn’t a one-off. Emails show Etihad deals where shirt sponsorship, stadium, training kit & campus naming rights were all inflated wildly out of line with the market at the time - later confirmed in the actual contracts, not just drafts. The numbers in the leaks weren’t hypothetical. They were real. UEFA auditors suspected this as early as 2013–14. They found £47m of 'intellectual property' sales boosting income, a £5m 'win bonus' paid for an FA Cup final City lost & sponsorships from Aabar and Etisalat above market value. City were fined & restricted - but crucially, UEFA never saw the full records. Why? Because City refused to provide them. This becomes a pattern. When UEFA charged City again in 2020, they imposed a two-year Champions League ban. City appealed to CAS & had it overturned. City fans shout 'INNOCENT', shared out of context screenshots. They're wrong. CAS did not rule that City were innocent. CAS ruled that UEFA could not meet the burden of proof - largely because City did not co-operate. City were fined €10m specifically for obstructing the investigation. Even City's own expert witness was denied access to key information that could have disproved disguised funding. 'No evidence' doesn’t mean nothing happened. It means the evidence was withheld. CAS explicitly stated that disguised equity funding could not be excluded - only that neither side could conclusively prove their case. That vagueness was entirely engineered. After CAS, new emails emerged suggesting Simon Pearce, a senior City executive & Sheikh Mansour adviser, had given misleading testimony under oath. City declined to comment. Again. While all this was happening, the Premier League had already been investigating City for years. City’s response? Delay. Delay. Delay. Obstruct. Litigate. Court filings later revealed City challenged the legality of the investigation itself, filed repeated procedural applications, refused to hand over documents, forced arbitration, then challenged arbitration & tried to keep the entire process secret. A High Court judge called it out in 2021. “It is surprising, and a matter of legitimate public concern, that so little progress has been made.” That’s legal spiel for stonewalling. This obstruction accounts for 35 of the 115 charges alone & that’s before we get to the secret payments. City declared Roberto Mancini's salary as £1.45m per year. On the same day he signed with City, he also signed a “consultancy” deal with Al Jazira - a club owned by the same man who owns City - worth £1.75m per year. That deal was explicitly marked confidential. Emails show City executives arranging the payments. Same signatures. Same people. Same day. The allegation is obvious: City paid Mancini off the books. Leaked documents allege undeclared payments for Yaya Touré, including via third parties. These aren’t rumours. They’re contracts, emails, invoices. This is why there are 14 charges relating to manager and player remuneration. Then there’s image rights. City told UEFA they sold player image rights for a £24.5m lump sum to comply with FFP. Later, they quietly resumed earning millions from image rights again. The buyer? A company whose directors included City’s own senior legal officer. Independent journalists couldn’t even establish its genuine commercial purpose. All of this feeds into the core allegation across 54 charges: City failed to provide accurate financial information in good faith. Not once. Not twice. But repeatedly, over nearly a decade. Now add politics. UK government departments discussed City’s charges with the British embassy in Abu Dhabi. Those communications are sealed - because releasing them could 'damage relations with the UAE'. City insist they are not state-backed. Then why is the state involved? Yet still, the delays continue. A 12-week closed-door hearing. Half a million documents. Years of silence. City remain 'innocent' - not because the evidence disappeared, but because the verdict hasn’t landed. This is why the case matters. If City walk away with a fine, it tells every club to cheat cleverly, obstruct endlessly, spend on lawyers, not compliance.. & the rules collapse. This isn’t about jealousy. It isn’t about success. It’s about whether financial regulation in English football is real - or optional for the richest club in the league. The evidence exists. The emails exist. The delays are documented. Now only one question remains, do the rules apply to City or not?

Michael Carrick was never going to go off the handle & speak out in his post match, that is an unrealistic & ridiculous expectation. He sounded totally defeated. Glazers, Ratcliffe, Berrada & Wilcox will try & use him as a shield, but Old Trafford made it clear today that won't be the case. He is not most to blame for why we're here.

£1.012 billion taken from Manchester United, stolen directly from the club, for the Glazer debt saddled on the club. £170 million paid out in dividends. Around £42m paid every year since the 2005 Glazer leveraged buyout - a process that is now illegal - to service their debt.

If Manchester United have Jason Wilcox lead their decision making for the next manager, the club will be back here in no time. There is no reason for anyone to believe that things can change above the manager. Having a sporting hierarchy doesn't mean it's good. There's no aligned judgment, an infrastructure you can trust, if you have a strong foundation there isn't such a gap between your best & worst. I can understand financial limitations - which are caused by ownership - I can't understand ineptitude or incompetence. Change has to go beyond the squad & the manager for it to be sustainable.

Manchester United are proof the Red Cartel doesn't exist. They cannot get anything right let alone be part of that - amidst what apparently is a conspiracy against the little underdog clubs. Unless a leading conspirator is truly this incompetent, I don't know what to tell you.

Michael Carrick while the Stretford End was chanting ‘It's Carrick you know’ before the final whistle. I hated how awful seeing this made me feel & as he went down the tunnel with tears in his eyes. He is not the enemy - love & respect always to a legend of the club, @carras16.

Stretford End the only good part of today: - ‘Best in Class, you're having a laugh’ - ‘Jason Wilcox, you're a wanker’ - ‘Stick your new stadium up your arse’ - ‘Sell United and fuck off home’ - ‘It's Carrick you know’

Extraordinary from the Stretford End & crowd at Old Trafford, their chants targeting the true enemies. Bruno Fernandes, Manchester United's Captain, has been shit this season, he was entitled to speak up. Lisandro Martinez has been shit this season, he was right to speak out & say what he did. Neither are the true reason Manchester United have become this over a steep, year on year decline. Don't attack the people speaking out. Ask why & attack those causing the club to become what it has. The media will scapegoat, they will talk about Michael Carrick & the players. The problems go far deeper. Always remember the true enemy are the owners, the cretins & cancers who have destroyed this club.

Is there a better case in football right now to fail the Ownership, Director & Senior Executive test than Manchester United? The Independent Football Regulator can issue a formal order to enforce the sale of a football club. How can they possibly be deemed competent?

Manchester United have won 14 games, drawn 7 & lost 3 with Kobbie Mainoo in 2026, they are winless when he does not play - this will be the sixth loss in nine games without him, drawing the other three.

Omar Berrada & Jason Wilcox, outside of the Glazers & Sir Jim Ratcliffe, are as culpable for what we're seeing from Manchester United as anyone. They have no right to be part of the decision making to replace Michael Carrick. Both should be sacked first.

Manchester United's ownership & leadership are more concerned with silencing fans than being accountable for what they've created. Be as proactive fixing this fucking mess.

I'm not going to disrespect a Manchester United legend on his way out - I am extremely grateful for what Michael Carrick did last season after such a horrific 14 months under Ruben Amorim where the football was so unrelentingly dreadful. For a little while, we were United again.

Sack Michael Carrick or not, it makes no difference without an environment to support success, Manchester United does not have it. Throwing money at problems has led to this, now there isn't enough left to do it. The dam wall has burst & there's nothing to patch it up this time.

Manchester United on the pitch are a product of their environment. No investment in elite coaching - whether it is tactical or fitness & conditioning - a manager & his players are expected to succeed in spite of the toxicity that swirls through the club from the top down. Poison.

This is the Manchester United the Glazers have built. They have destroyed the club, leeched on its soul for 21 years until now, with Sir Jim Ratcliffe, what is left? For Omar Berrada & Jason Wilcox, what are the repercussions, the accountability? The antithesis of Best in Class.

Diogo Dalot with the audacity to berate Carlos Baleba, after Baleba shoots over the bar with Dalot out on his own in space on the left. What has he done that even merit such a response, after a first half display like that.