EVENING BOLLOX4-0 v Rochdale
Michael Johnson played 45 minutes of City's EDS Senior Cup 4-0 victory over Rochdale as he continued his comeback from a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
The injury-plagued midfielder looked as if he’d never been away with a range of passing that oozed Premier League class, but it was goals from Alex Nimely, Abdi Ibrahim and a brace from John Giudetti that settled the game.
Andy Welsh’s team were the hungrier of the two teams from the start and after only nine minutes, Nimely was denied by a good save from Rochdale goalkeeper Edwards. Two minutes later and the Blues had the lead.
The lively Donal McDermott found space on the left to cross for Guidetti whose header struck the bar, but the rebound fell kindly for Nimely who was on hand to tap home.
Scott Kay looked set to double the Blues’ advantage but saw his shot hit the woodwork on 35 minutes.
The second half proved more fruitful for City as Guidetti and Ibrahim both scored within ten minutes of the restart to put the hosts in a commanding position and one, in truth, they were never in danger of losing.
Guidetti, playing his first game since returning from a loan spell with Burnley, continued to impose himself on the Rochdale backline and when Javan Vidal’s low cross beat both the defence and the keeper, the Swede was on hand to help himself to City’s fourth and complete a satisfactory evening for Welsh's side
TICK TOCKPlantini : Time to face the music? Sounds good to me
Michel Platini has warned that Europe’s biggest clubs will have to ‘face the music’ if they do not comply with UEFA’s new financial fair play rules.
UEFA’s latest figures show that financial problems affecting European clubs are getting worse, with spending on player wages up almost 10% – and increasing at a faster rate than income. Under their new rules, clubs will face possible bans from European competition from the 2014/15 season if they spend more than they earn in the three years before.
Platini, speaking at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, said, “If a club doesn’t fall in line and follow the same rules as everyone else then it will be time to face the music. Certainly it is not something we want to see. Our objective is not to put clubs into financial difficulty. Financial fair play is to help them escape from this devilish spiral and have a viable economic strategy in the long term. This is not a witch-hunt, this is so they no longer continue blindly and mindlessly.”
Way back, in 2008, Platini warned, “The real injustice is that conditions are not the same for everyone and, in particular, that some clubs deliberately go into the red to reinforce their teams by means of costly transfers. We cannot advocate respect in every possible form and champion fair play without encouraging them in the financial domain too. The first step in this direction has already been taken: by introducing a compulsory licence for clubs participating in European competitions, Uefa has already laid down criteria to guarantee financial health of clubs and, by extension, the orderly running of its’ competitions. Our task now – and we have to make this a priority – is to refine the club licensing system and ensure equal treatment across Europe. The importance of financial stability was brought to the fore this autumn by the events that have wreaked havoc on the financial markets. Needless to say, none of us wants to see the same things happen in football. And it is down to us to protect the game by guaranteeing financial fair play.”
City have already sent officials to meet UEFA about complying with the financial rules.
Andrea Traverso, UEFA’s head of licensing, said, “We are in talks with the club – they are aware of the rules and they probably have a strategy to raise their income. They have been to see us and they are confident that they can manage this challenge.”
Platini added, “Last year in Abu Dhabi I met up with the owner of Manchester City and he promised they would live with the rules and regulations.”
If Sheikh Mansour was to hand over a large capital sum to Manchester City now, before the new rules kick in, that would tide us over the next decade or so and the owners are also allowed to inject £12million a year (15m euro) into City.
This is likely to be City’s solution to the problem, and let’s be honest; it could be a problem (in a worst case scenario). However our owners are clearly here for the long haul and do not see our club as a rich man’s plaything (unlike what is happening at Stamford Bridge, Anfield and The Swamp). City’s Football Administrator, Brian Marwood said the club were ‘comfortable’ with the UEFA rules, hinting that this was the way that the club planned to move forward.
“It’s a concern, it’s something that every club has got to be aware of but we are fairly comfortable in terms of where we are at and moving forward, and that element is something that not just Manchester City will face but everybody.”
The situation at The Swamp® with the Glazer family (god love them), who have been paying large sums to pay off the interest on the debts their owners, took out to buy the club remains less clear. The Rags™ say that they will comply with the rules to only spend what they earn but UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino confirmed that interest payments are taken into account.
Infantino pointed out that, “In 2018 we (UEFA) will assess it and the objective is to go further down. It cannot be a loan however it must be a capital injection or donation. The costs to finance the debt are included.”
The Glazers (despite suggested that the Qatari royal family is preparing a £1.5billion bid to buy the club) have maintained they have no intention of letting the club go. The Americans are gambling and hoping that they can alleviate much of the club’s debt by clinching a world record kit deal worth more than £450 million before the current arrangement with Nike runs out in 2015. A dangerous game to be playing.
Whilst The Rags™ supporters cast envious glances at the spending power and team improvement at Manchester City, The Rags™ director Bryan Glazer has contradicted concerns about his family’s financial situation by splashing out $8.6m (£5.6m) on a luxury Chicago apartment. And earlier this year, fellow director Darcie Glazer Kassewitz purchased a $20.5m Palm Beach property with her husband, Joel Kassewitz. Nice to see that when Sheikh Mansour is pumping money into improving our great club, the infrastructure and the surroundings that the Glazer family are wallowing in Rag debt and splashing millions on yacht’s and apartments with Ferguscum and Gill constantly making ‘we won’t be signing anybody this transfer window’ noises. They are either in denial or just plain stupid.
It was reported earlier this year that four more of the shopping malls owned by the Glazer family have fallen into default on their mortgages, meaning that nine in total have defaulted with four of those actually going bankrupt. A further 29 out of the 68 malls owned by the Glazers’ ‘First Allied Corporation’ are now so empty of retail units that the revenue they generate does not cover the mortgage payments. The interest rate charged on The Rags™ enormous ‘payment in kind debts’ has risen from 14.25% to 16.25%. The Rags™ are saddled with huge debts as a result of the takeover by the Glazers. Investment analyst and lifelong Rag™ Andy Green, who has investigated and written about the situation at The Swamp®, believes the situation is one of great concern.
“They show that the Glazer family’s only significant other business is making almost no money, and certainly not generating the cash to reduce United’s massive debts,” he said, “The family’s shopping malls are afflicted by low occupancy rates, more have fallen into default, and whatever David Gill says, there appears no doubt that Manchester United itself will be made to service these useless debts and pay huge interest payments, all money which could have been spent signing players.”
It actually appears that The Rags™ are now not only servicing the Glazers other debts but are funding their lavish lifestyle. I’d cry for them if it wasn’t so hysterically funny.
The owners of City have known about this ‘new’ regulation change for some time it is therefore obvious why the Chairman has spent lavishly this season (on mostly talented young blood) to get a squad set up in advance of these new impending restrictions. So despite all the cries of unfair spending from Platini, the media and other clubs, it is a good bit of business on City’s part. Now, it’s just a matter of shifting some of the ‘dead wood’ that was brought in under Mark Hughes’ reign.
So, whilst we are looking to buy new talent and move on ‘old’ talent, The Rags™ are in no position to do either with their debt ridden club and ageing squad. Theatre of Dreams? Not at all. More like a crumbling amphitheatre that is soon to be nothing more than of historical interest.
Tick Tock. And that aint the sound of 34 years; that’s the sound of the time-bomb ticking away at The Swamp.
UEFA rules guide in a nutshell
■Clubs could be banned from European competition from the 2014/15 season onwards if they do not comply with the new rules.
■The rules state clubs must break even over a three-year period – ie not repeatedly spend more than they earn.
■Club owners will be allowed to put in up to 15million euro a year but only as equity, not a loan. This figure will then drop to 10million euro annually.
■Clubs will be able to spend as much as they want on stadiums, training facilities and youth football.
■UEFA will have a range of sanctions from warnings to a transfer ban to exclusion from European tournaments.
■Across Europe, total club income in 2009 rose 4.8% to 11.7billion euros (£9.7billion) but expenditure was a 9.3% increase to 12.9billion euros (£10.7billion), making a 1.2billion euro (£1billion) deficit.
■Most of the expenditure goes on player wages and one in three European clubs spent 70% or more of their income on salaries.
■More than half of European clubs – 56% – ended 2009 in the red.
■One in four clubs spent £6 for every £5 they earned.
■A drop in transfer activity has reduced income by 5% to clubs in Scotland, France, Portugal and Holland.
■English top-flight clubs are comfortably the richest in Europe with average revenue of 122million euros (£101million) – five times higher than Holland and Russia. Germany is second with average earnings of 86million euro (£71million).
■Scottish top-flight clubs’ average revenue in 2009 was 16m euro (£13.3million), the Republic of Ireland’s 1.3m (£1.08m), Northern Ireland 0.7m (£580,000), Wales 0.3m (£250,000).
■Clubs will be monitored if there are warning signs such as: recording a loss in any year; spending more than 70% of revenue on wages; having overdue football-related payments or tax debts; high level of debts.
■As with a tax declaration, the onus is on the clubs to provide the correct information to UEFA and they will be subject to spot-checks and face sanctions if they do not do so.
■National associations will initially grant the licences but UEFA will have spot-checks to make sure that the rules are being applied correctly.
More on this in tomorrow's Telegraph ...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... tions.htmlI'm not going to soil this fine site with their bile but if you fancy a laugh for a few minutes in light of Dzeko's comments today have fun at the following ...
http://therepublikofmancunia.com/new-bi ... erate-lie/
