The cache(一批，一批藏匿之物) of leaked emails and documents that would eventually lead to the crisis in which Manchester City are now embroiled(深陷（纠纷、冲突）之中) was published by Der Spiegel(德国《明镜》周刊，欧洲最具影响力的新闻杂志之一) in 2018, and often it was the tone of the club’s communications that was as startling(令人震惊的) as their content. Of City chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak(曼城俱乐部主席，阿联酋王室核心顾问), a trusted adviser to the royal family of the United Arab Emirates, it was said that he would “rather spend 30 million on the 50 best lawyers in the world to sue [Uefa] for the next 10 years” than accept a fine.
那批泄露的邮件和文件最终引发了曼城如今深陷其中的危机，它们由《明镜》周刊于2018年公布。而令人震惊的往往不只是内容，还有俱乐部通信中的语气。据说，曼城主席、阿联酋王室信赖的顾问哈勒敦·穆巴拉克宁可“花三千万请全球最顶尖的五十名律师，把（欧足联）告上十年”，也不愿接受一笔罚款。
In the same tranche of documents, City lawyer Simon Cliff asserts that “Uefa doesn’t respond to anything other than aggression”, and threatens the governing body of European football – who were pursuing City over alleged financial irregularities at the time – with “the destruction of their rules and organisation”.(在同一批文件中，曼城律师西蒙·克利夫声称“欧足联只对强硬手段有反应”，并威胁这家当时正以涉嫌财务违规追查曼城的欧洲足球管理机构，要“摧毁其规则和组织”。)
在同一批文件中，曼城律师西蒙·克利夫声称“欧足联只对强硬手段有反应”，并威胁这家欧洲足球管理机构——当时它正以涉嫌财务违规为由追查曼城——要“摧毁其规则和组织”。
All of which feels like a rather extreme way of ensuring that your football club has the right to sign Jack Rodwell(英格兰球员，2012年从埃弗顿转会曼城) from Everton. And, yes, this is one of those stories in which the deeply serious and the deeply trivial, the universal and the parochial(偏狭的，地方性的), are not always easy to tell apart(区分，分辨). From a safe distance, the news that one of English football’s most successful clubs has been found guilty of more than 100 charges of financial irregularity, including “sham” payments totalling around £900m, may feel like so much so-what, a thicket of sporting arcana that even devoted fans occasionally struggle to parse.(隔开一段安全距离来看，英格兰足坛最成功的俱乐部之一被判违反一百多项财务违规指控，其中包括总额约九亿英镑的“虚假”付款，这消息或许让人觉得不过如此——一堆连铁杆球迷都偶尔难以解读的体育冷知识。) But, of course, the City case goes deeper than one club, one league, even one sport. Fundamentally, it is a parable of power.
而这一切，竟只是为了确保你的足球俱乐部有权从埃弗顿签下杰克·罗德维尔——这未免太极端了。没错，这类故事里，严肃至极与琐碎至极、普世与偏狭，往往并不容易分清。隔开一段安全距离来看，英格兰足坛最成功的俱乐部之一被判违反一百多项财务违规指控，其中包括总额约九亿英镑的“虚假”付款，这消息或许让人觉得不过如此——一堆连铁杆球迷都偶尔难以解读的体育冷知识。但当然，曼城案的意义远超一家俱乐部、一个联赛，甚至一项运动。从根本上说，它是一个关于权力的寓言。