Manchester City could face historic punishment

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Decisions made in Washington can affect your portfolio every day, but what policy changes should investors be watching? Listen to Washington-wise and original podcast for investors from Charles Schwab to hear the stories making news in Washington right now. Host Mike Townsend, Charles Schwab's managing director for legislative and regulatory affairs, takes a non-partisan look at the stories that matter most to investors, including policy initiatives for retirement savings, taxes and trade, inflation concerns, the federal reserve, and how regulatory developments can affect companies, sectors, and even the entire market. Mike and his guests offer their perspective on how policy changes could affect what you do with your portfolio. Download the latest episode and follow at Schwab.com slash Washington-wise or wherever you listen. Welcome to the newest grocery outlet location, your couch, no parking lot, no shoes required,

1:05and the commute is approximately zero feet because now you can shop Instacart or DoorDash and get your grocery outlet favorites delivered right to your door with the same great item prices as in-store. Your couch has never been this productive. Grocery outlet, big deals, now delivered. And the US says there has been a sharp increase of Sudanese refugees fleeing the country's civil wall for neighbouring Chad. Also in this podcast, FBI agents tell the BBC of their shock fear and anger,

2:09following a hack that threatens to expose highly sensitive personal data. And we're in Paris. For Day 1 of 4 of a state visit by Pope Leo who warns followers against the dangers of artificial intelligence. We start the podcast with the bombshell verdict that has rocked the world of English football. The team that lit up television screens and dominated the Premier League for 10 years under Pep Guardiola, Manchester City has been found guilty of repeatedly breaking financial rules. It marks the biggest disciplinary case in the history of the sport, with the club found guilty on almost all of the 115 charges against it. With more, here's our sports editor, Dan Rowan. Over the past decade, Manchester City have enjoyed an era of unprecedented success, the only English club in history to have won the top division title four times in a row.

3:09But for years now, a cloud has hung above the eti-had, City accused of a catalogue of financial rule violations by the very competition they dominated for so long. And today, finally, came seismic news, City found guilty of the majority of 115 charges. In a statement, the club said the Premier League process remains ongoing with significant elements to be completed. The club has diligently respected due process for eight years, on the basis that the Premier League board and executive would behave as an independent impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from parties and influence. This, the reaction of fans outside the eti-had. We got to see what happens. We're sitting around first and foremost. Do I agree with the rules? No, but if they've brought the rules, then they've brought the rules. I don't want to say something's being tainted when we're not at the bottom of this, there's still things to go on in the background. It's a big club. We've got the infrastructure to fight. They've got the money. I think it'll be all right. So how did we get here? In February 2023, City faced a catalogue of

4:12alleged breaches of the Premier League rulebook. 54 charges over a failure to provide accurate financial information across nine seasons, and 14 more over a failure to provide accurate details for player and manager payments over the same period. They were also accused of 12 counts of failing to comply with both UEFA and Premier League financial rules, and 35 charges of failing to cooperate with the Premier League's investigation. The saga began back in 2008, when cities' fortunes were transformed after it was bought by Shake Mansour, a billionaire member of Abu Dhabi's ruling family. His wealth secured some of the world's best players and a first Premier League title in 2012. Finally, football appears to have one of its biggest ever results, but with no news of a sanction and city set to appeal, the saga is far from over. So what next for Manchester City, and what could be the wider consequences for the English Premier League? I asked our football correspondent, Dale Johnson. So this is going to be a severe punishment. It's an absolutely

5:14seismic case. It goes across nine years of continual misconduct if it isn't deproven and they don't win an appeal. So there are a few things that are open to the disciplinary panel. It's a points deduction, a financial penalties, or removal from the Premier League. Now, removal from the Premier League sounds unlikely, but a points deduction because of the gravity of this and because that they have failed to comply throughout, it seems highly likely there will be a heavy points deduction that will be meted out from the discipline and commission. And, Dale, I guess the domino effect could be that once the formal process is done, there could be wider implications with other clubs wanting to, I guess, settle some scores. They might feel as though they've missed out on titles or income if they didn't qualify for Europe or maybe loss of money because they got relegated into another division. Flood gates could essentially open. Yeah, this is going to be absolutely massive because if you look at the two years ago, several Premier League clubs said that they would reserve the right to take action to get financial compensation should Manchester City be found guilty. Now, we're not just talking here about Manchester

6:18now in Liverpool who missed out on the Premier League title in the three years at Manchester City won it in this period. It's about the teams that finished just outside the Champions League places, the teams that missed out in Europe and as you mentioned, the teams that were relegated. There are so many implications here and when you consider this early this year, Bernier awarded £35 million from Everton because they got relegated in one year when Everton had a PSR breach and that was just a few points and that's one team. Can you imagine the potential size of compensation Manchester City might have to pay out if this does turn out as it seems to be with them being fell guilty and having to face these claims for compensation? Our football correspondent Dale Johnson. Iran's foreign minister says his country has proposed a deal to the US to reopen the streets of Hormuz within seven days if certain conditions are met. The closure of the waterway has caused oil and gas prices to saw causing hardship for millions of people around the world.

7:20Abbas Araqqi speaking at the UN in New York said the choice now rests with the United States. Iran has conveyed to the United States through Qatar a concrete seven-day plan. If the necessary conditions are met the straight can be reopened. A normal maritime passage restored within seven days. The choice now rests with the United States. Iran does not accept coercion, threat or intimidation and Iran will not surrender its sovereign rights under pressure. We got more on the plan from our UN correspondent Nettovik. To cap off this busy week of diplomacy, Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araqqi delivered a statement to the press saying that Iran had delivered a concrete plan through Qatar mediators to the United States to get the straight of Hormuz open within seven days. And he said if the US was serious about diplomacy that everything was now prepared.

8:24Now in reality it's not much different than the original memorandum of understanding that was reached between Iran and the US before that initial ceasefire broke down. Iran says that if their assets are unfrozen, if the naval blockade in the straight is lifted, and if a ceasefire includes Lebanon, that they are ready to open the straight of Hormuz from their end. But this deal would now just shorten that timeline to seven days. It's unclear at the moment how the United States will respond to this. For the Iranian delegation, they are hoping that the upcoming midterm elections will provide an incentive for Donald Trump to declare some kind of deal and victory. But President Trump has already told this assembly that he won't be swayed by the election. And he still believes that kind of that crippling economic pressure will ultimately help the US with leverage. Nettovik, almost all refugees going to America are now white Afrikaners from South Africa. The US State Department says more than

9:2717,000 could be admitted next year. It comes as a result of Donald Trump creating a refugee scheme for white Afrikaners after claiming there is genocide against them in South Africa. But South Africa's new ambassador to Washington says there is no genocide against white Afrikaners like himself and is pushing for the scheme to be scrapped. An ortho-america correspondent only wells sent this report. In Sinhala, Nabe, on South Africa's west coast, the houses have an enviable view of long-sand beaches, blue skies, a gentle swell of waves. The most important thing is your birth certificate. But this resident, S.U. Divenacher, wants to pack it all up and in his words, flee. South Africa is a terrible country to loving for everybody at this stage, not just the Afrikaners. But the reality is that there is a political drive towards killing white people and killing the farmers on the farms. And that movement is a political driven agenda to wipe us out.

10:33Data shows most victims of farm violence in the country are black, not white, and farm attacks while they do exist only make up a small fraction of murders. Data hasn't stopped U.S. President Donald Trump seizing on this narrative and claiming white South Africans are victims of genocide. He made this accusation to South Africa's president, Cyril Ramaphosa, at the White House last year and created a refugee scheme for white South Africans. We had three times, three separate occasions where people came into the house, but Lily, not her real name, moved her family to Texas through the scheme a year ago, leaving their farm and lives behind in South Africa. Nothing was stolen. We went haunt, but there is friends of my husband, people that lived around us that were not fortunate not to be haunt. They were brutally attacked with pangas and amas and that was very close to us. Working on my green car.

11:35In the last 10 months, nearly 13,000 refugees were admitted to the U.S., all but three of them were South African. To qualify for the U.S. program. Larry Bartlett, the former director of the U.S. refugee admissions program, fears they're taking refugee places reserved for those fleeing persecution. It frankly would be laughable except for the fact that we are now denying legitimate refugees an opportunity to come to the United States. Instead, what the Trump administration has chosen to do is to focus on a population of white people who, frankly, under U.S. law, unlikely qualify for refugee status. They're taking scarce and precious places for people who have a real need to relocate for people who have fled war for people who fled ethnic cleansing is wrong and I think it's probably unlawful. From my perspective, South Africa's new ambassador in

12:37Washington, Ralph Mayer, negotiated an end to apartheid on behalf of the party responsible for it. Now, he wants to negotiate an end to this scheme. The notion of a mass attack on the African governor was misrepresented by those that might have conveyed the message. I mean, I'm an African, I'm from South Africa myself. I can say that I've never experienced something of that kind. So the sources misrepresented, unfortunately, something that just doesn't exist. I made the point several times publicly that I would like to see the executive order being lifted. But here in Washington, D.C., pressure on the South African government is increasing. The U.S. has announced visa restrictions targeting people it accuses of discriminating against South Africa's white minority. The number of those arriving here keeps growing with some, like Lily, encouraging more to join her. My entire life's changed. What I call the American dream,

13:40okay, is we both have jobs. We live in a safe neighborhood. This is home for me now. This is for my family. Lily has no desire to go back, but it's not clear if a future government, after Donald Trump, would continue to recognize her status here. That report from Ioni Wells. The United Nations says there has been a sharp increase this week. In the number of Sudanese refugees fleeing the country, civil war for neighboring Chad, it's at the number of people crossing the border. It's around 20 times the usual rate. And that eventually could mean more refugees trying to get to Europe. Here's a Global Affairs reporter, Jacob Evans. At the Dusty and Dry Processing Centre in Adre, desperate refugees keep arriving from the Sudan border just a few kilometres to the east. For the last few years of the grueling civil war, almost a million Sudanese refugees have fled here for a chance of safety. But the UN's refugee agency says this week has seen a marked rise in arrivals.

14:40Around 400 people are crossing the border every day. People who have witnessed and lived through countless atrocities. Mamadou Dianne Balde is the UN's refugee coordinator for the region. I was able to witness the arrival of new refugees, people who are who tell us that they flee the conflict, they flee the the the aerial bombardment, they flee, the drone attacks, they flee the persecution, they flee the violence. And people who are also getting more vulnerable because of the impact of climate shocks. The ongoing power struggle between the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary rapid support forces is into its fourth year. It's left millions dead in injured. The UN estimates more than 33 million people in Sudan need humanitarian assistance, coupled with at least three and a half million Sudanese refugees living in neighbouring countries. However, Mr Balde says the necessary aid is not available. The international community have given them around 20% of the need

15:40that are required, but it means less food. It means left capacities for people to be relocated to safer areas. It means less capacities to shelter themselves. And it also means people remain in very dire and vulnerable situation. The consequences of declining support extend beyond the immediate region. Latest analysis shows the overall number of refugees traveling to North Africa's Mediterranean coast to try and reach Europe has decreased, but the number of Sudanese arrivals by sea has risen significantly. Over 14,000 were recorded in 2025, more than treble the previous year. Many of these new arrivals in Chad have a difficult dilemma. Do they stay in small, overrun camps, tried to return to war ravaged Sudan, or do they attempt the perilous journey to Europe? Jacob Evans. Still to come in this podcast, the boss of the BBC says artificial intelligence could be used to create and present programs in the future. We want to experiment with this technology

16:43and understand what it can and can't do. I don't think anything we do should be replaced by AI. I think there are lots of places where AI can help us to make Blacksons Figo further, but also help us in our decision making and in our creativity, but it's not a substitute for humans. This is the Global News Podcast. Current and former FBI agents have spoken to BBC News of their shock, fear and anger, following a hack on Monday that appears to have exposed the private and personal information of the agency's entire workforce. The cyber criminals are now threatening to publish an enormous tranche of personal private and sensitive data if their demands are not met. Our cyber correspondent, Joe Tidey, has been speaking to concerned staff. So far, the FBI has said very little about this potentially dangerous hack. It's refusing to respond to reporters, instead issuing a short statement online saying it is

17:44aggressively investigating. But inside the FBI community, there is a loud chorus of shock, anger and fear. Former and current agents I've spoken to are extremely concerned about this highly sensitive data set to be published on the dark net for any criminal with a grudge to download. That is likely to happen in four days' time as the hackers, shiny hunters, have been threatening. We are particularly worried about our undercover agents, one insider told me. The stolen tranche contains not only the personal contact details of tens of thousands of agents, but also thousands of documents showing medical exams and test results of a private nature. How did this happen and why wasn't this information better protected? Is it feeling many agents expressed, angry at the agency for not having better cyber defences? But inside the FBI, there is a concerted effort to find and arrest this prolific hacking group. The Bureau will make these criminals suffer, was a warning I heard repeatedly. Chow tidie. The boss of the BBC says artificial intelligence could be used to create and present

18:50programs in the future. Matt Britten, former executive at Google, took up the role of director general of the BBC in May. Now he's been speaking to the BBC's Laura Kuhn'sberg about AI and how the corporation could be better placed to deal with its potential. She asked Mr. Britten if he would allow a BBC program to be made by AI. I would do within guardrails and I think what we want to do is we want to experiment with this technology and understand what it can and can't do, but I think I'm here because I believe in human creativity. I don't think anything we do should be replaced by AI. I think there are lots of places where AI can help us to make license fee go further, but also help us in our decision making and in our creativity, but it's not a substitute for humans. The BBC and our apps and services should be the antidote to the algorithm. Everywhere you go is driven by some commercial interest. Watch more shows, sell more advertising or take your data and give it to somebody who's building other things. We're also in this moment where AI is in takeoff. I think

19:54there's a danger that six companies will control access to information in future and the creation of information and misinformation. Six companies, none of them European let alone British. In that world, here's the BBC. It's the most trusted organisation. So you want the BBC to be a rival to those other big platforms, but also the BBC content is going on to those platforms. Do you trust the other big tech platforms? I think what I'd say is we have to be where the audiences are. So I was responsible for YouTube. That's not all the question. Do you trust them? There's a lot of platforms out there, so I wouldn't trust any platform innately and I think what you do is you keep under review how those things were and whether you or content can show up in the right place and fulfill its mission. Matt Britain. Poblier has finished day one of his four day state visit to France, speaking to thousands of young Catholics at an evening service. That's earlier engagements in Paris. He was advocating for their future,

20:54warning against the dangers of artificial intelligence and the risks of losing or humanity amid a paradise of machines. Our religion editor, Alim Mouc-Boull reports. The bells of churches across France rang out in concert to signal the arrival of Pope Leone. A striking welcome for a man visiting the country with a stark message. Greated by a Manuel and Brigitte Macron, he started his four day trip with a short visit to the Ilyse Palace. His next stop, the headquarters of UNESCO, the visit of an American Pope abused for the UN agency at a time when the American president has pulled the US out of the organisation. His keynote speech there filled with warnings about the dangers of AI. While intelligence is attributed to computational systems, we struggle to recognise the

21:57inalienable dignity of human persons whose lives are judged according to the criterion of efficiency and when deemed no longer productive, they're rejected and discarded. He's long talked of the threats posed by AI, including in the significant teaching document he published this year, in it he warns of AI enslaving humanity through algorithms that commodifiers of it putting huge amounts of power in the hands of very few and of reducing war to something like a video game. He's brought those messages to France reminding people what it means to be human, to interact, to come together. He visited Notre Dame Cathedral, its rebuilding after devastating fire, a celebration of human endeavour. The result he said was a place that felt like it was where heaven and earth met.

22:58Alim Mughball reporting. The Chinese president Xi Jinping has ended his first visit to the US in more than a decade. Despite little interns of concrete policy announcement, there was a visible friendly atmosphere between him and Donald Trump on his three day visit that featured a series of lavish events. One of them was a private tea party that Trump's hosted for President Xi, and his wife, Pong Leo-N. Until recently, it wasn't common for a Chinese leader to be accompanied by a spouse, and some have described Pong Leo-N or Mrs Xi as China's secret soft power weapon. She's a well-known singer in her own right. Here she is singing the song Everest at the annual Chinese New Year gala back in 1997. So is Pong Leo-N soft power super weapon. Jane Prelez is former Beijing bureau chief for the New

24:02York Times, and she's been speaking to Rebecca Hesby. Well, I don't know about super weapon. I think she's quite a power. She's a wonderful singer. She's recognized all across China as an amazing voice and presence because she's appeared on practically every New Year television gala for the last decades. So she's a recognizable figure with a great voice, and now she's accompanying Xi Jinping on his trips abroad, which is quite unusual, as you mentioned, for Chinese leaders to take their wives. Before Xi Jinping, they were not seen and not heard, except occasionally from Mao's wife, who was quite rambunctious, and not something that you'd really want to take abroad. Well, he didn't go abroad anyway, but Pong Leo-N is really exceptional in that sense. She's also fluent in English, too, isn't she? Well, I haven't spoken to her, so I can't testify to that. But the Chinese press was all gaga because she said a few words in English without a translator when she got off the plane,

25:03when she spoke to Melania Trump. I think she speaks relatively good English, but how much practice she gets, I don't know. So, as you say, as she's played a role in this meeting that we've had over the past few days, I mean, it's all been smiles and, you know, nice words from both sides, but what has come out of this state visit, do you think? Not very much. That's why a lot, particularly the Chinese media is focusing on her because not a lot has been accomplished. Nothing on AI that we know of, nothing on Iran, a very feeble two months extension of a trade truce, Taiwan not mentioned. We really don't know what if anything went on, but it seems pretty clear that there was nothing substantial. So that gave the Chinese a good chance to showcase the first lady, she and the Trumps and of course, Xi Jinping went on two museum visits, not just one. They had a tea together this morning

26:03at the White House and interestingly they went to the National Archives and I think they looked at the Declaration of Independence, but whether they looked at documents about human rights or individual rights, I'm not quite sure about that. And briefly, will both sides actually be quite happy with that? Well, I think President Trump is quite happy with it, but I'm not sure that even many of his senior officials are that happy with it and I think a lot of people who care and know about China are not very happy about it because it means that there's been very little progress on extremely tindentious issues that affect us all. Jane Perle is former Beijing bureau chief for the New York Times. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at Global Podcast at BBC.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service, use the hashtag global news pod. And don't forget us is to podcast the global story which goes in depth and beyond the headlines on one big story. This edition of the Global News Podcast was mixed by Derek Clark and the producers

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