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Inside Der Spiegel's Manchester City reports

"We will not be providing any comment on out-of-context materials purported to have been hacked o...
Raf Diallo
Raf Diallo

23.00 5 Mar 2019


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Inside Der Spiegel's Manchester City reports


Raf Diallo
Raf Diallo

23.00 5 Mar 2019


Share this article


We were joined by Der Spiegel's Christoph Winterbach

"We will not be providing any comment on out-of-context materials purported to have been hacked or stolen from City Football Group and City personnel and associated people. The attempt to damage the club's reputation is clear."

That was the statement released by Manchester City in response to Der Spiegel's reports on the football leaks documents.

They centre around UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules and compliance.

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Der Spiegel's sports journalist Christoph Winterbach joined us to discuss the issue.

"The past weekend, we focused on a story where it's very interesting for the English Football Association," he said.

TPO

"Because a couple of years back, they asked Manchester City about a player transfer. He came from South America - Bruno Zuculini was his name - and Manchester City declared that he was under a TPO [third party ownership] structure. They wanted to buy him and get rid of that structure. That was all normal business. TPO was banned in England. In other countries it wasn't.

"But the FA kept asking questions. They wanted to know what kind of companies financed this TPO scheme. They kept asking for the funds that flowed into the company. I guess what they were suspecting was that Manchester City had something to do with it.

"What we found in the football leaks documents is that actually the authority in Abu Dhabi where chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak works, they found that a company on the Cayman Islands to put funds into a player investment tool to buy players with a TPO fund in South America.

"The Football Association kept asking questions about it and Manchester City did not tell them that they were actually involved in this company as well."

Watch the full interview on the Football Show above via YouTube.


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