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

[GBrannan]

Kangaroo courts are funny things.

Anyone can be found guilty of anything, if sufficient motivation is there.

Sure.

But it seems clear enough we do have a case to answer. The emails were damaging, if at best just stupid levels of bravado. It did raise suspicions though, because for most of the empty heads in Europe we were a club with no history that suddenly came from no previous domestic or European standing and dared to challenge the elite and take their lunch money away. We also dared to do it with owners that have no history in European football because they weren’t white or latterly American.

We also don’t know what our dossier of indisputable evidence was, but for one judge, and not some absolute no mark, it wasn’t enough.

Maybe that guy was pressured into a decision? Maybe it all boils down to a grey area of the regulations and he opted one side and not the other? No one on here would know for sure. I doubt anyone at City really knows either, for absolute certainty, because it looks like it is coming down to how the set of rules we signed up to should be interpreted... and a bunch of top legal people are going to submit substantial dossiers arguing one way and the other and this time three judges will decide rather than one.

So all I’m saying, in contrast to some other voices, is that there are clearly reasons not to feel completely confident about all this, even if that’s not entirely popular or what I want to happen, because we have gone through two processes thus far and at neither juncture got the result we wanted.

We can’t really afford to lose, because it seems from reasonably well briefed media that could open a very serious can of worms related to our accounting practices and even potentially impact on previous domestic honours. That, if the worst does happen, doesn’t seem overly far fetched.

Fingers and toes crossed we win.... because I’d like to go back to a point where I can just watch my team play and whinge away solely because of some terrible player performance or refereeing decision and not need to read up on Thai politics, human rights, European financial laws etc. to defend and understand better where the team I support are at in the landscape of football and the face of continued hostility.

 

[cheekybids]

The Athletic article is all about the narrative of getting the Rags into the CL. Nothing more.

written by a Rag for Rags but soon it will be defended by blues cos Sam Lee is so great & balanced bollocks.

 

[The Stockport Iniesta]

Sure.

But it seems clear enough we do have a case to answer. The emails were damaging, if at best just stupid levels of bravado. It did raise suspicions though, because for most of the empty heads in Europe we were a club with no history that suddenly came from no previous domestic or European standing and dared to challenge the elite and take their lunch money away. We also dared to do it with owners that have no history in European football because they weren’t white or latterly American.

We also don’t know what our dossier of indisputable evidence was, but for one judge, and not some absolute no mark, it wasn’t enough.

Maybe that guy was pressured into a decision? Maybe it all boils down to a grey area of the regulations and he opted one side and not the other? No one on here would know for sure. I doubt anyone at City really knows either, for absolute certainty, because it looks like it is coming down to how the set of rules we signed up to should be interpreted... and a bunch of top legal people are going to submit substantial dossiers arguing one way and the other and this time three judges will decide rather than one.

So all I’m saying, in contrast to some other voices, is that there are clearly reasons not to feel completely confident about all this, even if that’s not entirely popular or what I want to happen, because we have gone through two processes thus far and at neither juncture got the result we wanted.

We can’t really afford to lose, because it seems from reasonably well briefed media that could open a very serious can of worms related to our accounting practices and even potentially impact on previous domestic honours. That, if the worst does happen, doesn’t seem overly far fetched.

Fingers and toes crossed we win.... because I’d like to go back to a point where I can just watch my team play and whinge away solely because of some terrible player performance or refereeing decision and not need to read up on Thai politics, human rights, European financial laws etc. to defend and understand better where the team I support are at in the landscape of football and the face of continued hostility.

Chill out, don't read the press or social media, we'll piss it.

Plenty more things worth worrying about than this.

 

[GBrannan]

Chill out, don't read the press or social media, we'll piss it.

Plenty more things worth worrying about than this.

I hope we do.

I don’t overly read that stuff, just enough to have some idea about where we’re at... and also enough to hopefully judge it objectively.

Let’s see. I hope CAS absolutely slate UEFA and find in our favour and the rest takes care of itself.

We’ll find out soon enough.

 

[Metalartin]

So when people ask me what it’s like to cover City but support United, the only ‘conflict’ these days is that City’s football is better

I don't have problem with Sam Lee personally, I feel he is subconsciously thinking about this whole issue from a United standpoint rather than deliberately. He is at least trying to be professional and unbiased most of the time, I can see that.

Journalists will jump on the backs of City fans if we raise an issue with it, they seem to be trying to silence or dismiss their views more frequently as the months pass. At the same time though, how would it go down if a City fan ended up as one United's main press correspondents? Or an Everton fan for Liverpool? Our fanbase has been getting stick for not being able to be objective or being unreasonable but the United and Liverpool fanbases are about as blinkered as can be. Sam Lee is treated very reasonably by most City fans from what I can see, I can't see the same happening at those clubs. Most journos are treated reasonably contrary to the picture some of them have been trying to paint, just so they can peddle their agendas in peace. They wouldn't dare try and get away with the same things over Liverpool or United. Not a single one of them journos that have been criticising the City fanbase in this. We saw that with the hacking scandal.

 

[The Future’s Blue!]

I don't have problem with Sam Lee personally, I feel he is subconsciously thinking about this whole issue from a United standpoint rather than deliberately. He is at least trying to be professional and unbiased most of the time, I can see that.

Journalists will jump on the backs of City fans if we raise an issue with it, they seem to be trying to silence or dismiss their views more frequently as the months pass. At the same time though, how would it go down if a City fan ended up as one United's main press correspondents? Or an Everton fan for Liverpool? Our fanbase has been getting stick for not being able to be objective but the United and Liverpool fanbases are about as blinkered as can be. They wouldn't dare try and get away with the same things with their clubs. Not a single one of them journos that have been criticising the City fanbase in this.

If a journalist is admitting that then bias seeps into every area of their correspondence. In today’s age of opinion pieces alliances only work one way.

 

[Metalartin]

If a journalist is admitting that then bias seeps into every area of their correspondence. In today’s age of opinion pieces alliances only work one way.

I was just thinking about how reasonably Sam Lee is treated even though he is a United fan. It doesn't really sit with what those journos on our shit-list have been saying about how the City fanbase behaves. I really hope some of them are made examples of if City are cleared.

 

[bluwes]

Neither side would want huge legal bills....... saw that posted earlier. sorry we will spend MBappe money and more on this

 

[kaz7]

It will pass the time and what happens after,bring it on

 

[The Colonel]

I hope we do.

I don’t overly read that stuff, just enough to have some idea about where we’re at... and also enough to hopefully judge it objectively.

Let’s see. I hope CAS absolutely slate UEFA and find in our favour and the rest takes care of itself.

We’ll find out soon enough.

You seem to be putting a lot of weight on the content of the hacked emails as interpreted in a newspaper. Just to be clear what do you read into what was in them as bravado at best and lead you to think that the cause of this is City’s own doing?