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

[Ancient Citizen]

Real court test the ruling and prove there's a cartel would be my preference, whistle blow it to death and drag the whole lot down in a never-ending assault on football authorities.

That is exactly my take on it, they've been seething with resentment ever since City became successful. The fact that
the money we invested resulted in brilliant signings, with clubs like the Rags also spending big but resulting in flops like
Pogba etc; Uefa, urged on by the likes of these, brought out one of the most bent rulings ever, designed solely to stymie City,
and ignore massive debts incurred by so called elite clubs. So now, they've gone completely balls out, so will we,
if this gets to court, we must have an enormous pile of shit to hurl at the whole rancid shower of them, bring every single
misdemeanour before them, cite the arseholes that were Platini and Blatter, brief every gutter journalist on the planet,
tell them to embellish every article, in short, make them squirm.
I really hope we never let up with this, use every dirty trick in the book, and pile on the agony of shame and embarrassment
about every facet of the corruption and unfairness they have employed against us.

 

[bobmcfc]

The Ceferin rumour is very interesting. If the club have any proof of that offer surely it would strengthen their case? UEFA offer a slap on the wrist to save face with the cartel and media but we refuse as we believe we are innocent. UEFA then throw their toys out of the pram and hit us with the ban and fine. So even if we go to CAS and fail, surely the original slap on the wrist should be the punishment as that is what was originally agreed was fair.

see I’m very cynical towards this. If he offered us a deal in exchange for a guilty plea then it reeks of entrapment imo. I reckon any lesser punishment was a lie as they have form for goalpost moving.
I mean could we really try and claim we were offered a lesser sentence in return for a admission of guilt ?? Nobody would take our side because nobody is on our side

I’m glad we said no. If they really thought they had no case or feared a trial we wouldn’t have got 2 seasons. We have a huge fight on our hands and we’re up against a very corrupt system. Nobody can say FIFA and UEFA aren’t rife with corruption.

i hope to god that these last few years we’ve been gathering intel in exactly the same way they have got hold of the so called evidence they have on us.

Fighting clean just won’t cut it in my opinion and if we are going down then I’d like to think we can take the whole grubby house down with us

 

[Blue back home]

I don't think the conduit of how UAE state funds are used to transfer funds from the state airline is particularly important. It looks and sounds damning but this is what is meant by context. City and Etihad will have a contract specifying the terms of the Etihad deal. If it says £67.5m is due to Man City in respect of X then the financial obligations of a finacially compromised state airline are indeed going to be met by the UAE Executive government. That is not really controversial. Regarding the small UAE sponsors, I don;t think City have ever pretended that these companies were not owned by Sheikh mansour e.g. Aabar so within reason we can within the rules adjust what we sponsor ourselves. There are loads of examples of football clubs self-sponsoring e.g Leicester with King Power, Sports Direct etc.

I totally agree with your reading of City's confidence. We reportedly turned down approaches from Ceferin to agree a small fine.

I disagree and think the sources of the funds are vitally important. I’ve read a lot about financial fraud and it’s how you disclose where funds are from that’s important. I’ve also read a lot about the deal making in our owners wider region. What was normal out there doesn’t wash here now.

I’m currently reading Billion Dollar Whale about the 1mdf case which is truly fascinating and astonishing and references our owner and chairman

 

[dhruvblue]

Sorry if this is posted earlier, but good points. They are not after ManCity but CFG as whole. But there are Chinese Involved, Americans involved and CFG operates in Japan, India, Australia

 

[Centurions]

In this scenario you are describing money laundering. In essence we are using a bank transfer to a sponsor from us to falsely conceal the source of funds for a sponsorship deal. If that’s our defense we are truly buggered.

Nobody on here has a clue what our defense is. What is clear is that we are supremely confident of having this quashed. Our statement in response to the ban has basically accused UEFA of being totally corrupt. No legal team would dream of advising us putting this in writing unless they are 101% certain UEFA are wrong. An interesting time is ahead.

That's certainly not my understanding of 'money laundering', even the ubiquitous Wiki states:-

Money laundering is the process of making illegally-gained proceeds (i.e., "dirty money") appear legal (i.e., "clean").

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_laundering

If AD wants to support it's own state owned airline to stop it folding then it's totally legitimate. Was it money laundering when the Americans bailed out there airline industry (multiple times from memory).

That seems a peculiar choice of words for a Blue to come out with.

 

[Blue back home]

I'm not suggesting that's what our defence will be. I'm suggesting that's what may have happened.

City's task will be to show that X million was due from Aabar, Y million was due from Etisalat, and Z million was due from Etihad, etc. And then to produce records to show that X, Y, and X million was received from Aabar, Etisalat and Etihad, respectively.

How any of those companies got that money is none of UEFA's business and certainly beyond their jurisdiction.

Again none of this is true. Where these companies got the money from is vitally important. How do you think criminals wash their money. By layering it through legitimate companies/shell companies etc.

I’m not for one second saying we’ve done this but I guarantee it’s not our defense.

 

[John Wayne]

The Ceferin rumour is very interesting. If the club have any proof of that offer surely it would strengthen their case? UEFA offer a slap on the wrist to save face with the cartel and media but we refuse as we believe we are innocent. UEFA then throw their toys out of the pram and hit us with the ban and fine. So even if we go to CAS and fail, surely the original slap on the wrist should be the punishment as that is what was originally agreed was fair.

The club has been confident of its position for a long time but if the Ceferin rumour is true then, if we can prove he came to us pleading with us to take a last minute deal, the integrity of the UEFA process has been utterly and irrefutably compromised. The whole show-trial has been conducted under the guise of independence between UEFA and the CFCB. If the process is really as independent as UEFA say it is then what the hell is the most public face of UEFA doing in trying to negotiate another settlement? This is nakedly an abuse of process as Ceferin should not have ventured anywhere near the investigation as soon as it was referred to the CFCB. Any evidence which would demonstrate anything to the contrary is meat and drink to our lawyers and to CAS.

My own opinion is that Ceferin and Infantino before him actually wish this hadn't arisen and want a quiet, money-making life. The attempts to damage us come from significantly deeper than the UEFA officials you see on CL draw day.

 

[Marvin]

Yes I kept on reading Sam Lee's reports that a ban was unlikely to happen. Given that he appeared to be ITK I was fairly relaxed until the bombshell dropped. That is why I am worried now as these positive reports often turn out to be false.

There were all kinds of suggestions that UEFA had backed down. Ceferin was widely thought to be seeking a compromise and then came the Silverlake investment which suggested they had done their due diligence. You don't invest hundreds of millions into a football club if that club is about to lose a major revenue stream.

It seems pretty obvious that UEFA has been vacillating between one position and another. If City have proof of this then it compromises UEFA's adjudicatory chamber.

I think if City turned down a negotiated settlement then we must have had very very god reasons for doing so.

However this is all based on suppositions and Ifs. Maybe we all just misread reports including the media.

 

[Blue back home]

That's certainly not my understanding of 'money laundering', even the ubiquitous Wiki states:-



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_laundering

If AD wants to support it's own state owned airline to stop it folding then it's totally legitimate. Was it money laundering when the Americans bailed out there airline industry (multiple times from memory).

That seems a peculiar choice of words for a Blue to come out with.

You’re right, money laundering is the wrong phrase as it’s not illegal money. Im more trying to make the point that the reporting of the sponsorship payment and source of that money is important and is probably not our defense.

 

[paulchapo]

There were all kinds of suggestions that UEFA had backed down. Ceferin was widely thought to be seeking a compromise and then came the Silverlake investment which suggested they had done their due diligence. You don't invest hundreds of millions into a football club if that club is about to lose a major revenue stream.

It seems pretty obvious that UEFA has been vacillating between one position and another. If City have proof of this then it compromises UEFA's adjudicatory chamber.

I think if City turned down a negotiated settlement then we must have had very very god reasons for doing so.

However this is all based on suppositions and Ifs. Maybe we all just misread reports including the media.

I can't wait until it is all over and hopefully with a positive outcome. Even being relegated to the third tier hasn't depressed me as much as all this shit.