Last week, Man City's lead lawyer in the case against 115 charges - Simon Cliff - wrote to the remaining 19 Premier League clubs.
The letter is short, Cliff tells other teams not to believe what the league is accusing them of. In it, Cliff makes it clear that the related party transaction (APT) rules targeting Man City are misunderstood due to inaccurate information.
In a story shared by Football Leaks in 2015, a leaked text message led to Man City becoming the target of cheating allegations. At that time, the club's president, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, told Gianni Infantino (then UEFA General Secretary) that he was calm when receiving financial penalties from the governing body. After that incident, Al Mubarak spent 30-50 million Euros, hiring 10 lawyers known as "the best in the world" to accompany Man City for 10 years.
The reason why Man City is considered very "aggressive" is because before that, they not only suffered from domestic public opinion, this also came from other tournaments. Al Mubarak once hinted that Javier Tebas - the president of La Liga had made a very harsh criticism of City. Tebas was blacklisted by Al Mubarak for openly opposing Man City even though he is in a completely separate entity that has nothing to do with English football.
Man City’s bold statements are like a hedgehog bristling in the face of public opinion and accusations. However, if you look at it from the Etihad Stadium team’s perspective, this could be an act to rally support. Man City are both aggressive as a belligerent side and pitiful, forced to brace themselves against accusations they consider baseless. That way, sympathy will come more easily.
Cliff's letters and the strong statements from The Citizens have the same goal, the team will fight to the end, until they win the lawsuit. Not losing the latest APT case has further motivated the Manchester team to fight to the end in this 115-accusation scandal.
Man City are looking to win most of their case, or even be acquitted, when they face the Premier League in court. They don't want the club's performance to be affected and they also want all the critics to be silenced once and for all.
