City launch legal action against the Premier League | Club & PL reach settlement | Proceedings dropped (p1147)

It's also possible for him to be wrong.
I’m not getting involved in the debate about Stefan, but will say that he does appear on the face of it to be, as they say, up his own arse a bit at times and not particularly humble in appreciating he isn’t all knowing and likely to be correct 100% of the time. That’s his prerogative, of course, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with people feeling rubbed up the wrong way by his current stance.
 
I struggle to see how you have reached that conclusion. That's not suggesting you are wrong just that my thoughts are quite different. Both sides can of course claim a win, and for the PL they have had confirmation that the APT rules are sound in principle.

But whilst City took them to court to fell the tree, using your analogy, there were certain branches that weighed heavy and were the true target. And those branches have been cut. In doing so, the PL are left with a tree that might not survive.

Remember that the PL had legal advice on the rules, then amended them without (or ignoring) that advice. Certain rules voted through have been found to be unlawful. Those rules were ones that caused City to lose out on lucrative new sponsorship. It's going to take a hell of a lot more than some gentle pruning to get a lawful version of the rules voted through. The amendments were clearly made to appease clubs who saw them as enabling City to potentially grow revenue. Removal of certain words was paramount to getting them voted through. To think the PL simply re-draft and then get sign off is naive. They either manage that, and City are likely to then secure new sponsorships, or they again introduce a set of unlawful rules. The emails City have issued to all clubs suggests the latter isn't an option they have.

Stepping back, it is who you perceive to be the bad guy. The PL is essentially doing what it is under pressure to do. Certain clubs have clearly forced through these rules. The PL possibly doesn't have an issue with a lawful version, but many clubs will. Between them, they're in a spot of bother.
The PL spent ten days preparing their damage limitation comms release. Their press release is no more than PR spin. I don't think many of the PL clubs at next week's meeting will regard it as a victory. It's going to cost the clubs a lot of money in legal fees and that's even before the PL faces a compensation claim from City and a potential legal action from Newcastle. This whole episode has been a disaster for the PL and I will be amazed if Masters survives in his job. Perhaps then some of the media stooges and idiots at the BBC will stop repeating the PR spin that the PL have won the case.
 
How can so few at the Premier League, fuck something up that is good for so many people, that the competition no longer has any credibility ?

They have essentially conspired with a select few clubs to cheat, basically.

As long as the select few were alright, they turned a blind eye to them and restricted the growth of others.

They must have been taking advice from that twat Tebas.

I said to an Everton fan last night, that there would only be City left in the top division because the rest of the cheating cunts will be relegated.
 
One thing that has occurred to me is why is this case been commented on by football journalists and reported on sports pages? It has nothing to do with football! It should be reported by legal correspondents on business pages.

It's one of the major issues in football, as the sport becomes more commercialised, having knowledge of the game alone is no longer enough in certain spheres. The Premier League have found this out trying to draft complex financial rules for 20 clubs wanting different outcomes. Some journalists will be worried because their love for football and Journalist/English degrees but no legal knowledge or financial knowledge might leave them left behind.

Even as a fan, how much have we had to learn in the last 10-15 years to understand what is going on?

The sport has changed and still changing though and it's only going to become less about the football unfortunately.
 
You didn’t say who tbf!

Yes, but there’s a huge distinction between a carefully worded press release that some PR agency has been working on for days and a letter that stridently asserts a legal position to the members of the organisation that you have been in litigation with.

The former is necessary and designed principally to limit any damage; the latter is inherently more risky, elective, and would have to be founded (especially in this instance) on unequivocal legal advice.

So the former isn’t really a function of any legal advice, whereas the latter would only be sent following that advice.

I think it's a given that Cliff didn't write that letter?
 
To be honest whilst it's nice that Stefan Borson provides some kick back, he really does waffle and come out with some mealy mouthed drivel at times.

At the end of the day, we were told by Platini that the whole purpose of FFP was to stop owners pumping too much money into their clubs, to try to make the game more sustainable. The PSR rules are supposed to be a more lenient/watered down version of the same, as the allowable losses are higher.

However FFP insists owner loans have interest allocated at a FMV rate and PSR doesn't (or didn't).

Judging by the Premier League's stance on this point and losing in court on it, if Mansour had simply leant City £1.5Billion at 0% then they wouldn't be pursuing City for breaching PSR... dream on.....

The Premier League have been proven by this judgement and their immediate response to be completely corrupt and disingenuous.

These hefty preferential loans at clubs like Arsenal and Liverpool have been around for over 15 years, deliberately circumventing PSR. How can they write off historical issues of interest free orclow interest loans?

I've actually calculated Liverpool's 2010 0.5% £240m loan would now stand at £735m if an FMV interest rate of 8% had been applied. They would never have had the money to buy Mo Salah, let alone Van Dijk. Alisson, Fabhino and Keita. They wouldn't have won anything at all under Klopp.

Arsenal have spent way above their means over the last 8 years using this same mechanism, to build the side they have today.

When the PSR rules were written, I find it hard to believe high quality law firms were not involved because of the sums of money at stake. These firms will have provided sound legal advice as to the legality of this issue, and almost certainly advised against it. You'd have to assume they deliberately ignored it at the behest of Arsenal, Liverpool and United to give them a loophole whilst they try to "get City"

City have had two sponsorship deals stopped this year under the APT rules that have just been found unlawful and can claim compensation. I have no idea how much they're for, but axtypical deal of £20m over 5 years is £100m. So this alone could be considerable.

Yesterday the Daily Mail, when covering this story, suggested many smaller Premier League clubs had been trying to get the Premier League to drop the PSR case against City, and settle for damages out of court.

It is now very clear to me, City are going to win their PSR case either at arbitration or on appeal in a court of law. The legal costs and compensation are going to hit £1Billion or thereabouts for this whole affair.

On the one hand, we want our club vindicated and cleared, but we don't want to destroy competitive football and the Premier League.

This is why our owners are pushing for a football regulator.

I'd love to see the Glazers. Kroenke, FSG, Joe Lewis and Boehly booted out of football for good.

I wish Stefan Borson would show more balls.
Not the Glazers.
 
The PL spent ten days preparing their damage limitation comms release. Their press release is no more than PR spin. I don't think many of the PL clubs at next week's meeting will regard it as a victory. It's going to cost the clubs a lot of money in legal fees and that's even before the PL faces a compensation claim from City and a potential legal action from Newcastle. This whole episode has been a disaster for the PL and I will be amazed if Masters survives in his job. Perhaps then some of the media stooges and idiots at the BBC will stop repeating the PR spin that the PL have won the case.
I'm amazed that some on here think it's a win for the PL.

Whats not in question is that City have gained from this ruling and the PL have lost quite a bit.
 
Well found.
From what I remember he was always careful not to go too far one way or the other due to not having all the facts. I think he’s been quite consistent on that fact and usually changes opinion slightly when more is known.
He usually caveats most of his opinions with him only going with what’s publicly available so at that point in his professional capacity he probably felt what he was saying to be correct.

Regardless, City have achieved what they set out to do and that’s the only important thing today.
 
Some of the stick Stefan gets is a bit unnecessary. He's asked to give his professional opinion on these matters, and doesn't deserve grief just because it's perhaps not what people want to hear! It's fine to disagree with him, forums are all about debate, but should at least be courteous.
The same people will moan about the red top biased coverage in the media. Some people only seem to want objectivity when it aligns with their cause
 

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