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

[Chi-town blues]

So if you steal in a good faith it’s not a crime ?

 

[foxbox123]

So if you steal in a good faith it’s not a crime ?

Nods in *Robin Hood*

 

[Groke]

I think the way Wenger used to get excited about Football economics & how they will do it right. He expected to be able to outspend everybody on the back of a new ground with higher attendance in the most expensive part of the country. When the landscape changed, outside investment, higher TV revenue he complained it was cheating not that he’d mis-calculated. It would be like the owner of Blockbuster accusing Netflix of financial doping.

Arsenal were one of the biggest losers of city breaking the old top 4, nearly every year they would qualify for the CL by finishing fourth, but because they always qualified, they would go into pot 1 in the group stages based on UEFA's points system. Because they were in pot 1 they always then qualified for knockout stages (where they then got knocked out!), further boosting their UEFA points and ensuring pot 1 the following year. The CL money have them a huge financial advantage over the rest of the teams outside the top 4 (tv deal wasn't as significant as it is now) enabling them to finish fourth again, so rinse and repeat. Now if Wenger wants to talk about financial doping, well he should have looked a little closer to home.

 

[Delboy352]

I just can’t help feeling that though we may win at the CAS, due maybe to a technicality, that last paragraph with its “public perception” will be the one that will bring us down which is why the hateful 8 drafted a letter that would not be considered during the process...that, along with the rabid press will stir up the feeding frenzy that would be sure to follow...

 

[Coatigan]

I'm speculating very wildly here but let's suppose we confronted Liverpool with the evidence and they said "It's a fair cop but we've also got loads of emails that will show you're trying to cheat UEFA over FFP. Wanna do a deal? If so we'll pay you £1m in hush money and we agree not to do anything like this again. We both sign NDA's and nothing is ever said again. If you do, we've still got the emails." We're not really in a position to argue as we haven't actually done a settlement with UEFA at that point so accept the settlement.

Yet the emails get released a few years later anyway and all bets are off as we know where they came from, plus we've got information on other stuff.

Like I say, this is very wild speculation but it kind of makes sense in some ways.

A bit too wild for me, that speculation. Entirely possible of course, but i struggle to believe it myself.

 

[Brendan110_0]

Probably the wrong thread but talk about u turns
https://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2020/arsene-wenger-wants-reforms-made-to-financial-fair-play/

HA HA

 

[Brendan110_0]

I think we have UEFA bang to rights, when they start talking guff like "not in the spirit of FFP" you know they're on shaky ground.

 

[SilverFox2]

I think we have UEFA bang to rights, when they start talking guff like "not in the spirit of FFP" you know they're on shaky ground.

Especially when the rules have been skewed to be not in the spirit of "fairness" despite being called FFP.

 

[petrusha]

I think the way Wenger used to get excited about Football economics & how they will do it right. He expected to be able to outspend everybody on the back of a new ground with higher attendance in the most expensive part of the country. When the landscape changed, outside investment, higher TV revenue he complained it was cheating not that he’d mis-calculated. It would be like the owner of Blockbuster accusing Netflix of financial doping.

Wenger's hypocrisy about so-called financial doping was exposed a few years back when his Arsenal side faced Monaco in the CL. It was in the summer of 1987 that he joined Monaco, who'd finished fifth in the French league the previous season. After spending the best part of £3 million, at the time a huge sum, on Mark Hateley and Glenn Hoddle, they won the title in Wenger's first campaign.

In those days, TV broadcast deals were pretty negligible and sponsorship was small beer, too. Gate money overwhelmingly counted for the majority of a club's income. So how were Monaco doing on this score when Wenger rocked up? Well, the previous campaign they'd been the 28th-best supported club in the French league with an average home attendance of 4,428. In the English league that same season, the likes of Grimsby and Walsall both drew an average of over 5,000. I'm sure Monaco's ticket prices lifted their revenues to a level well in excess of their English counterparts, but nonetheless the club relied on a vast subsidy from the Monegasque royal family to meet the level of expenditure being incurred in the pursuit of success.

None of this stopped Wenger from crowing to the press, in the run-up to that CL tie, about how proud he was of his achievements at Monaco and what special days they were. Nothing wrong with that in itself, of course, but it represented cynical hypocrisy of the first order for him to maintain that stance while decrying contemporary 'financial doping'. And did any august representatives of the fourth estate have the combination of perspicacity and bravery needed to call him out? I don't think you need me to tell you how the spineless and unprincipled tw*ts reacted. Every. Last. Fucking. One.

 

[salfordbluetrue]

Here's another important question?

Didn't Uefa withhold £10m in fines following the previous settlement, dispersed amongst the Uefa family?

If City go hunting for heads on spikes, then could we sue for that cash back if we do hold incriminating evidence of a coordinated stitch-up?

Uefa can't have it both ways. On the one hand it was a final settlement, yet they have reopened it...

That makes the £10m fair game now?

UEFA expect to lose any case brought up, which is why they would not touch the money, instead giving £ 125,000 to each of our competitors academies