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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 2h

Trump’s wrongful intervention impacted one game. This would relate to 18 years of cheating. Just a smidge more…

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 2h

Yes the simple reading is what he’s saying is what he believes and wants - no change to the ownership

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 3h

But more likely, the plain reading is that he doesn’t want there to be action against the ownership and is already feeling pressure from UAE

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 3h

He’s kind of doing both in the quotes. The charitable reading is that by not pushing for action, Burnham gives the regulator space to act as an independent entity. Basically saying “It’d be a shame if something happened” gives him the space to remove himself from any decision-making

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 4h

Really United drew City, but due to Pro-Ref errors an offsides goal stood.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 7h

I do wonder if, given City execs may have legal exposure for the fraud the PL found them guilty of, if a termination ahead of any resolution would be viewed as prejudicial.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 8h

City have one CL title. That’s more successful than my team but hardly “hugely successful” by English or European standards.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 9h

Man City are just like the suffragettes, if the suffragettes never publicly advocated for women having the right to vote but instead successfully did voter fraud for decades

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 10h

Hard to look at this trend line and not presume City continued to use sham finances consistently since 2018

Bar graph

From soccer community on Reddit
Commercial revenue (£ million)
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
£64.7m
50
E52.9m
0
£23.4m
£23.4m
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
Commercial revenue (as recorded in Manchester City's accounts)
MANCHESTER CITY
COMMERCIAL REVENUE
AS REPORTED IN ACCOUNTS VS. COMMISSION-IDENTIFIED SHAM REVENUE
2018/19 ONWARDS
OUTSIDE THE COMMISSION'S FINDINGS
£341m

2009/10-2017/18

SHAM REVENUE THROUGH THE DISGUISED FUNDING SCHEME

£143m
£121m
£70.8m
ESO.3m
E37.3m
£166m
£54.5m
£173m
E107m
£65.8m
£178m
E120m
E57.8m
£218m
£1.30m
£232m
£135m
£97.3m
£345m
£340m
£309m
£272m
£246m
£227m
2013/14
2014/15
2015/16
2016/17
2017/18
2018/19
2019/20
2020/21
2021/22 2022/23
024/25
Commercial revenue after removing Commission-identified sham revenue (genuine commercial revenue)
Sham revenue through the Disguised Funding Scheme (identified by the Premier League Commission)

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 11h

I won't complain if that's where we end up. I just care about that far less than I care about seeing their titles vacated, their club expelled, their execs banned & their ownership fully removed from the club.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 11h

I care far, far, far more that City has them vacated than we or anyone else has them belatedly awarded (with asterisks or otherwise). Getting awarded titles retrospectively is probably the least interesting outcome I want to see from this process.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 11h

The £920M isn't how much they spent. It's how much they hid. They were right at the top of expenditures throughout this period before they hid this money. It's simply untrue to say that it's less than what other big clubs spend, as it's only part of City's expenditures.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 11h

And I think many would welcome losing that sponsorship. Most people I know were disappointed to see it renewed.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 19h

This feels fully within reach for you. You can do this.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 19h

Fantastic stuff Miguel.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 19h

Man City subskeet from the top ropes

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 23h

They’ve said they will appeal twice now

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 29/09/2026

Waiting for that irrefutable evidence

Alex Winters & Keanu Reeves in Waiting for Godot

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 29/09/2026

Their why had nothing to do with thinking the rules were unfair. It's that they did not want to post the biggest losses in EPL history as it would have irreparably altered their sportwashing image right when they were starting off.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 29/09/2026

If you separate the ownership from the club at point of punishment, you can forestall further legal delays & get these cheaters out of English football, while preserving a pathway for the club under new ownership

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 29/09/2026

I think the right approach is for the PL to move in two pathways: 1. A nuke from orbit punishment on the 114 convictions 2. Agreement with the PL independent regulator that they need government intervention to force a MCFC sale concurrently.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 29/09/2026

So I guess they'll keep fighting, keep obstructing & keep making clear to the PL that this iteration of ManCity can't be allowed to continue to exist.

static.klipy.com

Bold Strategy Cotton - Dodgeball

Alt: Bold Strategy Cotton - Dodgeball

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 29/09/2026

Funny they're still surprised. Surprised in 2023. Surprised last Friday when they gave an on-the-record quote to Ornstein. Surprised today when the verdict they knew about in July was announced.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 29/09/2026

£920.68M - no need to round down to 900!

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 29/09/2026

City began their "disguised funding scheme" to avoid posting the largest losses in PL history, just in time to rebound and win their first league title with this ownership group two years later.

iii) The Club’s financial position: H2 2009 and H1 2010
64) While the Club’s commercial revenue increased during 2009, by Q3/Q4 2009 the
contemporaneous documents show that the Club
a) Had not been able to generate the levels of commercial revenue for which it had
budgeted. ‘Doing deals’ (both generally4 and with AD Sponsors in particular) had
proved more challenging than the Club had anticipated
b) Was anticipating that it would suffer very significant losses in the 2009/10 financial
year and in future financial years
c) Recognised that the only way to fund its planned levels of expenditure in the coming
months and years would be by ADUG continuing to provide very significant sums by
way of equity contribution. 65) The Club’s financial position caused two principal reasons for concern at that time in the
months and years that followed:
a) As regards the short term there was real concern that the Club’s total losses in the
2009/10 season would exceed what was at that time the record single season financial
loss by a PL member club (Chelsea FC in 2006) of £140million. That was a record that
the Club was adamant it should not break
b) As regards the longer term
i) was of the view that the Club would likely continue to suffer large losses
for at least the following five seasons
ii) There was concern as to whether – and if so how – the Club might be able to comply
with the UEFA FFP Rules5 that were under consideration at that time and that (it
was believed) would likely be introduced (as well as any domestic FFP Rules that
might in time be introduced into English football).
66) Receipt of ever-increasing amounts of owner funding from ADUG would not enable the
Club to meet those concerns6

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 29/09/2026

There's an awful lot redacted related directly to Abu Dhabi sponsorship arrangements...

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 29/09/2026

Relegated = fits into normal transition process between divisions Expelled = not a relegation, not obviously accepted into a lower EFL league

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 29/09/2026

Yep. I'm at immediate expulsion - award 3 points to all of their opponents, including to games already played. Force a sale. Use the proceeds to pay damages / fund the pyramid. Ban their execs from working in the UK again. Vacate the titles/trophies won here. Don't award them - wear the scar.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 29/09/2026

That and stockpiling young talent for a multi year transfer ban, presumably.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 29/09/2026

Considering how much City distorted the transfer market this summer, them knowing they were guilty while doing so is incredibly egregious and shows yet again how they have fundamentally distorted the European transfer landscape.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 29/09/2026

I should clarify, the reporting on Anderson specifically suggests that he presumably wouldn't have been informed prior to agreeing the deal. Unclear if he was informed prior to the deal being inked.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 29/09/2026

I had not. Adds to the case that they lied or held information from players that would have fundamentally impacted those players' decisions to sign for them.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 29/09/2026

So for all the chatter about the ruling's potential impacts on the City players, either their new signings were lied to about the charges by Man City or their new signings were informed & signed with full knowledge of who they were joining (and presumably made comfortable in their contracts)

espn.com

Man City learned of guilty verdicts in summer before transfer activity - sources

Manchester City were first informed that they had been found guilty of more than 100 breaches of the Premier League's financial rules in the summer, sources told ESPN, before spending heavily in the transfer market.

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Reposted by Matt Browner Hamlin

Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Khaldoon Al Mubarak releases statement.

The David Perdue campaign meme, but with the text changed to read:

Manchester City
TOTALLY EXONERATED,
NO WEONGDOING
On 1 of 115 charges

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 28/09/2026

“Somehow country music is both the soundtrack of the real America and, also, a precious wittle underdog that needs to be handled delicately because the elitists in the big cities won’t support it.” @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social

garbageday.email

Why "Choosin' Texas" doesn't feel like a hit

Read to the end for FlubberLover01

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 28/09/2026

114 convictions vs 114 goals scored from set pieces with fouls that PGMOL let slide amiright?

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 28/09/2026

Oh for sure. I hope the Liverpool fans absolutely rain down the boos from the first to last minute.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 28/09/2026

I don't think it's particularly complex. Either City will have to pay them the contracts they signed regardless of what division they play in. Or players will seek contracts be voided & join other clubs, presumably with some haircut on their salary. The price they pay will be quite evident.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 28/09/2026

I just think the potential outcome of City getting a guaranteed relegation points deduction but having to play the season out is measurably smaller than the long term consequences of any punishment that keeps them in the PL after this year

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 28/09/2026

How serious is the sporting integrity damage here? It feels massively overblown - 6 points the largest likely affect. Yet not sending them out of the PL means years of cheating is let stand

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Reposted by Matt Browner Hamlin

pixelatedboat aka “mr bluesky” @pixelatedboat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

If the AI era has taught us anything, it’s this: it’s fine to judge people based on their aesthetic preferences

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 26/09/2026

Many people are saying this

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Reposted by Matt Browner Hamlin

ProPublica @propublica.org · 26/09/2026

Hey, ProPublica reporter Jake Pearson here. I’m taking over the account to tell you about my new story. For months, I posed as a problem gambler on DraftKings to test the company's "responsible gaming" safeguards. Spoiler alert: They made me a VIP — and I lost $10K. Here's how it all went down. 🧵

Selfie taken by ProPublica reporter Jake Pearson, a man wearing a backwards baseball cap and an orange T-shirt.

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Matt Browner Hamlin @mattbh.com · 26/09/2026

Andy I forgot - did the “Super League Cartel” include Man City, Chelsea & Spurs or just the historically successful teams in red?

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