CFG Out

http://www.espn.com/soccer/soccer/0...accused-of-rapewhy-is-the-case-in-legal-limbo
Juventus and Serie A (obviously along with Ronaldo's own machine) are helping him avoid process servers by keeping him ultra-isolated.
I was with a nine-year old kid yesterday who was waxing rhapsodic about Ronaldo and it just made me so sad.
Interesting, I did not know about any of that. Still not sure exactly how liable they are for it but I do agree that there’s more damning evidence in that article. Not really looking to derail this thread though. Happy to continue in the Serie a thread if you’d like.
 
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not trying to win" BS when Mitrita was signed for an $8.5 million transfer fee, one of the largest in MLS history.
Counterpoint:
We started an MLS season with Ben Sweat as our starting left back.

And not a single striker on the roster.

And I have no reason not to believe any fee this team pays isn’t impacted in some way by shady dealings not directly determined based upon what is best for NYCFC.
 
The sportswashing is probably a bigger deal to me than the FFP stuff, since FFP in itself has its issues (solid discussion here: https://www.playthegame.org/news/ne...cial-fair-play-in-european-football-any-good/).
Make no mistake, man. Exploiting the academy situation in Africa is fully all about not paying proper market rates to the proper people who are put into your employ.

And I think that’s about all I need to say about that. The entire world recognizes these practices are despicable, and it’s not because they violate FFP.
 
Make no mistake, man. Exploiting the academy situation in Africa is fully all about not paying proper market rates to the proper people who are put into your employ.

And I think that’s about all I need to say about that. The entire world recognizes these practices are despicable, and it’s not because they violate FFP.
Good point. In some ways, it's easy to lose sight of the most egregious of their deeds because of the sheer frequency of them.
 
You get the feeling CFG have decided to cut back on their losses and scale back.

The problem is though, who would or could purchase this team ? Especially without a stadium plan in place ?

My concern, and Ive mentioned this before, is that nycfc is fast becoming another red bulls. Its bleeding fans and once they go, its hard to get them back.

I look at LAFC with envy and see what can happen in a big city with a local ownership group, fan base and stadium.
 
Nothing about this is shady. Nothing at all...

View attachment 9677
Matchday revenue is easily explained. The club added seats and if you look at ticket data the tickets have increased in price by almost 3x since 2008. Yet they’re still in line or cheaper than other top clubs.
Every club is bringing in more broadcast revenue. The deals since 2008 have been astronomical. City is almost always prime time as well.
I can argue for their commercial revenue as well. Who knew or cared for City state side or anywhere outside of Manchester prior to that 2008 season? I only started following them when Dzeko came over in 11 which coincided with regular broadcasting state side with Fox buying the rights.
You can even buy City jerseys in Target now. Picked up an old Umbro kit a few months back.
Now are some of the numbers slightly inflated? Possibly but I’d also make the argument that they could be accurate.
You could easily argue that City’s following has grown by 500% since ‘08
 
Matchday revenue is easily explained. The club added seats and if you look at ticket data the tickets have increased in price by almost 3x since 2008. Yet they’re still in line or cheaper than other top clubs.
Every club is bringing in more broadcast revenue. The deals since 2008 have been astronomical. City is almost always prime time as well.
I can argue for their commercial revenue as well. Who knew or cared for City state side or anywhere outside of Manchester prior to that 2008 season? I only started following them when Dzeko came over in 11 which coincided with regular broadcasting state side with Fox buying the rights.
You can even buy City jerseys in Target now. Picked up an old Umbro kit a few months back.
Now are some of the numbers slightly inflated? Possibly but I’d also make the argument that they could be accurate.
You could easily argue that City’s following has grown by 500% since ‘08
Agree with a lot of this. In 2008, pre-CFG, City was at best mid-table also-rans when compared to the much more well known United. Since coming back up they hadn't been relegated again but you were never comfortable until they got to around 40 points, at which time you were happy with 11th or 12th place simply because you knew they'd stay up. So if 2008 is your baseline and you're looking at club revenue now versus those days there's simply no comparison. The club is now an international powerhouse thanks to CFG cash, and while this may feel odd to longtime fans it's the way things have worked out (à la the Steinbrenner Yankee years). So sure, the current numbers are however many 100s of percent larger than 2008 but I don't see that as anything other than the results of the club's success.

And sure, I could be totally wrong about that and it's actually all due to impropriety, but I'm going with Occam's razor on this one, at least until shown otherwise.
 
The only figure that is questionable to me is the Commercial revenue of 235M which is now second only to Man United, and likely inflated by an Etihad sponsorship that is likely in excess of market norms and dubious benefit to the airline. And even if we didn't know about that game, the number would be suspect because MC has great success lately but licensing and marketing deals lag success as it takes time to build a worldwide following. Admittedly this is based on nothing more than "it seems wrong" but it is puzzling that City would be that far ahead of established teams with long-standing international followings like Liverpool and Arsenal.

But as far as these things go, and in the scheme of what bothers me about the UAE and CFG and NYCFC ownership, the little game that CFG plays with Etihad is remarkably inoffensive to me. If Mansour wants to pour his own money down a money pit of an airline, and further use it to subsidize his sports empire to sidestep rules designed to entrench the dominance of those very teams with long-standing international followings, well I really don't care.
 
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Matchday revenue is easily explained. The club added seats and if you look at ticket data the tickets have increased in price by almost 3x since 2008. Yet they’re still in line or cheaper than other top clubs.
Every club is bringing in more broadcast revenue. The deals since 2008 have been astronomical. City is almost always prime time as well.
I can argue for their commercial revenue as well. Who knew or cared for City state side or anywhere outside of Manchester prior to that 2008 season? I only started following them when Dzeko came over in 11 which coincided with regular broadcasting state side with Fox buying the rights.
You can even buy City jerseys in Target now. Picked up an old Umbro kit a few months back.
Now are some of the numbers slightly inflated? Possibly but I’d also make the argument that they could be accurate.
You could easily argue that City’s following has grown by 500% since ‘08

Look, all of that could be true and still wouldn’t move the needle on commercial. Once you get a sponsor deal, the club doesn’t make much money at all on a unit moved basis.

What does move it are the related company deals that are priced/increased as needed to make up deficits.

I'm going with Occam's razor on this one, at least until shown otherwise.
There are actual football leaks emails you can read that lay out exactly what they were doing, so you don’t need any razor, Occam’s or otherwise.
 
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Look, all of that could be true and still wouldn’t move the needle on commercial. Once you get a sponsor deal, the club doesn’t make much money at all on a unit moved basis.

What does move it are the related company deals that are priced/increased as needed to make up deficits.


There are actual football leaks emails you can read that lay out exactly what they were doing, so you don’t need any razor, Occam’s or otherwise.
Those numbers will be even bigger next year. 10 year $650 deal with PUMA will take effect.
 
Those numbers will be even bigger next year. 10 year $650 deal with PUMA will take effect.
That deal is for all of the CFG franchises except for NYCFC, so maybe MCFC will be a pile of dicks and try to claim all of it leaving the others with nothing, but I doubt UEFA will allow it since the contract stipulates the ugly step kids are part of it.