UEFA FFP investigation - CAS decision to be announced Monday, 13th July 9.30am BST

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

I hope I'm totally wrong with this

But could the misleading investigators part, be that some of the money for the Etihad deal may well have come from the Emir (HH) and even though this is nothing to do with SM, Uefa feel that this was not disclosed originally and so by definition on Uefa's part City have misled them

I'm just putting this out there as we know Uefa like to move the goal posts

Every ball that is going hopelessy wide and might result in a defensive throw-in will be redirected so that it creeps over the line by a couple of mllimetres. Uefa want a sacrificial lamb!

 

[flb]

I've said this before but it's worth saying it again. The hugely frustrating part of all this is that to a large extent it's self-inflicted. A club of our size, knowing we have lots of enemies in football, should have had state level security in place. That means a fully secure server and high level encryption of emails. We had neither so an individual accessed everything with absolute ease and that really is unforgivable.

Totally agree mate, someone’s head surely must have rolled over this.Or perhaps it was an ex employee with an axe to grind.

 

[GaudinoMotors]

The BBC's Dan Roan says that "Portuguese judge Jose Narciso da Cunha Rodrigues is the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber and will look at the case with at least three of its four members - vice-chairmen Christiaan Timmermans, of the Netherlands, Switzerland's Louis Peila, English QC Charles Flint and Adam Giersz, Poland's former sports minister.

I assume he has been reading UEFA's disciplinary processes. They publically detail their structure and members of their committees. It maybe that Charles Flint does not play a part?

Don't worry Marvin you can rest easy, I'm sure they'll be doing their best to screw us.
But be prepared to be upset by the outcome.

 

[blue ranger]

They will get us on something even if they do need to change their shitty FFP rules. Whether it’s not inviting us into a breakaway champions league competition or changing rules again, the cartel won’t stop til they get is. The worst thing is that we will have to put up with terms like financial doping for the entire duration of the appeal and any subsequent court cases. Unless we get cleared by the panel which just isn’t going to happen.

 

[kippax4ever]

Could we claim Legal Aid for this,& if so we could us this local company..

 

[MillionMilesAway]

You only have to look at the Neymar and Mbappe deals and the hugely overvalued Qatar sponsorship deals to realise PSG are still flouting the laws. Infantio who was at Uefa at the time and Laurent Platini who is essentially employed by the Qataris were involved in dodgy deals, google those names, there is plenty of speculation on PSG’s misdemeanours but Uefa seem to be very quiet on their issues.

Also when we were fined we got the same punishment as PSG even though they over inflated their sponsorship deals far more than we were supposed to have done.

@Parisian is the expert on PSG - he may be able to flesh those out a bit. However, I don't think it's a surprise that the first big sanctions under FFP (at the same time as each other) were similar - testing what the clubs would accept.

As far as I know, PSG have not been accused of what City have, so there isn't anything to compare directly on that. Vice versa, the things you mention haven't been levelled at City, so there isn't anything to compare.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

I hope I'm totally wrong with this

But could the misleading investigators part, be that some of the money for the Etihad deal may well have come from the Emir (HH) and even though this is nothing to do with SM, Uefa feel that this was not disclosed originally and so by definition on Uefa's part City have misled them

I'm just putting this out there as we know Uefa like to move the goal posts

That was my understanding - that was in the Spiegel claims which UEFA have stated was one reason for the investigation.

 

[dadnlad]

must be a great atmosphere in the boardrooms up and down the country when we know their trying to shaft us behind our backs

 

[Indaparkside]

Could we claim Legal Aid for this,& if so we could us this local company..

Ask olle does he have ocean finances number to cover any potential fine

 

[Marvin]

If the Executive Council of the UAE underwrite the Etihad deal, and support their financial obligations, then I find it difficult to see how UEFA can justify a year's ban, in addition to previous sanctions, on the basis of the remaining financial transactions which are small in value.

NYT and BBC stressing that UEFA are focusing not on the value of the deals now, but on how UEFA had been 'misled' as to the source of the funds.

I find this an empty statement.meaningless. Owner investment is permitted, but regulated. We see it all the time in football eg King Power, Sports Direct. I am not expecting Dan Roan or the NYT to spell out exactly what UEFA's objection is, but the vast bulk of the UAE sponsorship is from Etihad Airlines and I find it difficult to see how that can now be questioned.

The problem here is that UEFA are going to look weak after all this talk if they don't follow through and sanction City. They have the to keep the hawks happy (Tebas, major clubs). Their investigation seems to me unprofessional (leaked) and I am failing to see what the smoking gun is. The UAE state underwrites Etihad Airlines, not Sheikh Mansour, whilst Aabar etc are his own companies and everyone knows that. He can up until market value invest what he likes. For my own understanding, it would be interesting to know what UEFA / Dan Roan / NYT really mean when they say 'misled'. How can you mislead UEFA as to the source of the sponsorship money when it's a matter of record as to which companies Sheikh mansour owns, and Etihad is the state airline and therefore controlled not by Sheikh Mansour but by the Executive Authority of the UAE?

I am suspecting that UEFA are just playing this out and they know full well that this case is empty. They have a lot of powerful clubs on one side and a hostile media pressing them on one side so they can't be seen to just drop it.

 

[kippax4ever]

They got half of the job done already. After winning the league 90% of City news in media is all about cheating, doping, CL ban next season or 1 year later. Tarnishing our achievements. Even if we dont get any ban or fines later they still will be happy that they did this to us.

I am sure they already have new negative stories to be coming out Saturday night or maybe scheduled at Sunday.

Compare all this to what would have been going on in the media if Liverpool wins the title. They do hate City with passion, some journos on twitter are literally praying every day that they ban us, Castles, Traiq Panja, Nick Harris, every match we win they are the first to bring up human rights, financial doping, transfer spending etc.

The club has to handle it hard, taking pinches got us into this sort of situation.

 

[TheRemainsOfTheDave]

@Parisian is the expert on PSG - he may be able to flesh those out a bit. However, I don't think it's a surprise that the first big sanctions under FFP (at the same time as each other) were similar - testing what the clubs would accept.

As far as I know, PSG have not been accused of what City have, so there isn't anything to compare directly on that. Vice versa, the things you mention haven't been levelled at City, so there isn't anything to compare.

They were accused of something similar, if not the same ... https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/sep/24/uefa-reopens-financial-fair-play-investigation-psg

... it is understood some members of the investigatory team believe the club’s sponsors have been paying inflated sums to boost income artificially, which the club denies. When closing the PSG investigation in June, Uefa said the Ligue 1 club’s break-even result had been “within acceptable deviation” for the past three financial years.

When UEFA reopened the investigation they should have done so in a 10 day period but took two months, so PSG's appeal against it being re-opened was upheld by CAS.

I have to ask myself, are UEFA that stupid to try something that broke their own rules so blatantly? Remarkable, if so. Doesn't seem right that these very experienced legal people on the UEFA panels didn't check this.

 

[BlueRain]

How sure can anyone be that these leaked / hacked emails are legit? They could be completely made up or legit emails that have been edited to make them look like we knew something we didn't... That's the problem UEFA have - they are putting 100% trust in someone actually having hacked our email servers and not tampered with anything...

There was a story a few weeks ago that PSG's owners were thinking about "scaling back" their investment in PSG due to the bad publicity (and PSG being sh*t in the CL) and maybe (just maybe) UEFA and the cartel are trying to smear our owners (and PSG's) to get them to back off their investments?
It sounds a bit "foil hat" nuts I know, but mud like this sticks - even if we get found not guilty of anything there will be a lot of people who will just think brown envelope's have been passed under the table and there's no smoke without fire etc etc...

Going back to the emails - as someone else has already said... where are all the other "damning" emails regarding other clubs? Seem's a bit odd that the only "leaked" emails to have surfaced are about us?

 

[domalino]

They were accused of something similar, if not the same ... https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/sep/24/uefa-reopens-financial-fair-play-investigation-psg


When UEFA reopened the investigation they should have done so in a 10 day period but took two months, so PSG's appeal against it being re-opened was upheld by CAS.

I have to ask myself, are UEFA that stupid to try something that broke their own rules so blatantly? Remarkable, if so. Doesn't seem right that these very experienced legal people on the UEFA panels didn't check this.

They only made the deadline for investigating us by 1 day, so I think it's entire possible they fucked up and missed one for PSG. You have to remember most of these people aren't experienced lawyers but corrupt former bureaucrats.

 

[Marvin]

I hope I'm totally wrong with this

But could the misleading investigators part, be that some of the money for the Etihad deal may well have come from the Emir (HH) and even though this is nothing to do with SM, Uefa feel that this was not disclosed originally and so by definition on Uefa's part City have misled them

I'm just putting this out there as we know Uefa like to move the goal posts

Etihad is a state airline. I don't see what room there is for ambiguity.

 

[kippax4ever]

Ask olle does he have ocean finances number to cover any potential fine

RAC-insurance for him..for when the wheels on the bus fall off

 

[bluemanchester]

Totally agree mate, someone’s head surely must have rolled over this.Or perhaps it was an ex employee with an axe to grind.

Did someone say the entry to the e mails was through the passwords of some ex youth coaches who went to another club.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

I can see the RDAHMeedya, Dan Roan, John Aldridge et al getting together and invoking the usual claptrap of supporting English teams in Europe. Pretty soon they will all leap to our defence when they see 'one of their own' being set upon by some third rate Belgian politician!

 

[BlueAnorak]

That was my understanding - that was in the Spiegel claims which UEFA have stated was one reason for the investigation.

It's nothing to do with UEFA - that is an Etihad Airways issue as to where they get the sponsorship funds from. Of course UEFA may see it differently but they too are clearly bound by international account rules.

 

[TheRemainsOfTheDave]

They only made the deadline for investigating us by 1 day, so I think it's entire possible they fucked up and missed one for PSG. You have to remember most of these people aren't experienced lawyers but corrupt former bureaucrats.

Those in the adjudicatory chamber appear to be highly experienced lawyers. They were involved in the attempt to re-open the case because (and I quote) "The Adjudicatory Chamber ruled on 19 September 2018 that the case should be referred back to the Investigatory Chamber for further investigation." They had been given the task by the UEFA CFCB on June 13 so should have ruled by, I assume June 23 at the very latest.

If the legal professionals missed this, I'm astonished. None of them appear to have been changed as a result. Either they were extremely careless or allowed it to drag for some reason.