The truth behind Man City CEO not blinking for 3 minutes in 'unusual' announcement video

· Mirror

Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano addressed staff in a new video, and his body language was very telling

A body language expert has described Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano's announcement video as "unusual". Soriano sent a video message to club employees after the club were found guilty on 114 of their Premier League charges.

A bombshell statement from the Premier League on Tuesday confirmed that Man City were guilty on all but one charge between 2009 and 2018.

The independent commission's judgement ruled that City "overstated [its income] by over £830m" during the nine-year period covered by the investigation and arranged "sham commercial deals" with several sponsors.

Man City responded with a fiercely defensive statement of their own, with Soriano hitting back at the verdict on video. The City CEO reiterated the club's intention to fight on through every available legal avenue and labelled it a "conspiracy theory".

The Spaniard spoke confidently for three and a half minutes, with many viewers online noting his lack of blinking throughout the now-viral message.

Body language expert Judi James spoke to Mirror Football about the video, claiming Soriano's body language is "unusually textbook impeccable", with his hand gestures and facial movements matching his words perfectly. James also explained that the City chief's lack of blinking could be down to extreme focus on the message he was trying to deliver.

She said: > "There is what looks like one heavy swallow in preparation but after that any unnecessary movement is negligible. But that includes his blinking. The average blink rate is around 15 - 20 per minute, which is quite a consistent rate, and it might actually be reasonable to expect Soriano's blink rate to speed up a little under the pressure of making what are clearly some emotional points.

> "Intriguingly though there appears to be no sign of any blinking here until the only visible cut in the video at 1.54. Even after that it only appears to be at 2.55 that the first blink is seen and then maybe another after that.

> "Soriano does use his eyes to register different moods as he speaks here, though, so they are not static, which makes the lack of blinking look even more unusual as he's clearly not hard staring with a frozen eye expression. His left eye wrinkles in a smile at one point; the eye expression gets colder at another, then we see his brows rise in an expression of surprise before there is a hardening that suggests inner anger.

> "So, we have the eyes showing expression but no apparent blinking for nearly three minutes, which is unusual. Not blinking is said to sometimes be caused by intense focus, though. Interestingly, there is also no apparent micro-darting of the pupils here that you usually get when someone is reading from an autocue, so the suggestion would be that an unblinking Soriano is able to be this word-perfect but without cues from a script."

James went on to analyse his hand gestures, which transmitted confidence and a sense of authority, likely with the intention of reassuring City's staff.

She continued: > "His hand gestures are also textbook. The hands move throughout as though accompanying every point or sentiment made with absolutely no untidy leakage. At the start, he even has a cocked left thumb to suggest confidence.

> "The Precision Pinch is a regular ritual used, and it tends to imply precise thinking. He throws the first when he says, 'I want to explain' and he even raises and drops it as a baton for extra emphasis. This sense of being 'precise' is echoed in his mouth movement when he hikes the left side of his mouth up to then 'bite' at the word 'exactly'. There is a look of rejection as he leans back and widens his eyes to say that this has 'gone on for so long'.

> "Then he digs deeper into the visual signals of precision as he performs a double precision pinch using both hands, with his 'this is just not true' coming with a double precision, a baton gesture and his unblinking gaze. There is what looks like a desire to register authority as he raises his left index finger on the word 'Remember…' and then, when he talks about 'in order to win the case', he uses a downward jab point with his right index finger to signal determination.

> "When he talks about 'protecting the club', he cups his hands as though holding it protectively, and then at the end, there is a motivational smile as he talks about overcoming adversity 'together.'"

Soriano's message was as follows: > "The whole Premier League case against us is based on a single false accusation - that the owner's personal money was somehow and secretly put into the club via some sponsors from Abu Dhabi.

> "This is just not true. Irrefutable evidence has been provided to the Premier League commission that shows it could not happen and that it did not happen. This includes bank statements, money transfers, witnesses and everything necessary to categorically demonstrate the money did not come from the owner.

> "Every other false charge that has been thrown at us comes from that simple, central and completely false accusation. Surprisingly for us and our lawyers after nearly two years the commission has issued an opinion that supports the Premier League’s conspiracy theory.

> "To do so, the opinion had to ignore the extensive evidence provided by the club in order to reach a conclusion that is clearly wrong. Our lawyers will now file an appeal that sets out the opinion contains clear, material errors of law, principle and fact and that it is unsafe."

City have until Friday, October 2 to appeal the verdict. Sanctions have yet to be applied.

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