We don't know what the board has to offer to CAS. I do hope that they have been truthful to UEFA, and not economical with the truth, which is why they have banned us for 2yrs.
Where have I ever said the media is not perverse?
Nobody has a lower opinion of certain sections of the media than me. The only difference is I think their behaviour is not unique to City but contemptible to anyone they can possibly attack.
Also I do not use a broad brush to categorise everybody in the media, hence I doubt everybody is conspiring against us. Sadly some people cannot see that you can doubt an agenda by the ‘media’ but still dislike large sections of them.
The ownership and management team have done fantastic things for the club and city in the past 12 years but if they pushed the boundaries (unfair rules if you want) too far and tried to cover it up from everyone (including us) they have put the clubs reputation on the line and ultimately its us the fans that it impacts in the long run.
The central question with our alleged breach is does it matter where Etihad and the other two Abu Dhabi-based sponsors got their money from? And the answer is, as I've shown, yes it could well matter, depending on the circumstances. But my interpretation of the FFP rules is that if Sheikh Mansour didn't pay that money, then we haven't broken any rules and, even if he did, we might not have.
All any of this proves to me is what a shithouse business professional football is.
I agree with PB’s summary that we are guilty of nothing. Because the whole thing is corrupt and the rules are skewed (particularly against us)
As such and in the present circumstances whereby I honestly have not missed football, I genuinely don’t know what outcome from CAS would actually satisfy me.
My current thinking hasn’t changed, I really feel like I’m done with football, in it’s present form.
I don’t feel the outcome I would fantasise about is possible. I think there is too much stacked against us in the overall game, but I do live in hope.
How I would love to see the tide turn.
I don’t even want to see City be a part of this corrupt money-centric business but that, I fear is being just naive.
Like I said. I truly don’t know what would satisfy me at this stage.
But always remember the vindictive rules being purposefully used to intimidate and destroy one club "is nothing like nazi Germany."I agree with your pessemism. VAR has killed the game on the field for me and the corruption of the game off the field is heart breaking. Putting our hearts into a situation where natural justice is irrelevant and kangaroo courts prevail is soul destroying. In addition, just watching the soulless, ghoulish spectacle of the press and politicians need to restart the game in empty stadiums convinces me that the spirit of football is dead.
As for City?
We are already fucked in the court of public opinion. Not sure how much I care about that. But the more we fight the deeper the hole gets.
My god i want to see those fuckers in the media taken down big style, including the BBC. But if certain clubs can get away with hacking, smashing up busses and get exclusive access to appoint the bosses (all without a ripple in the media), then i am out. For the sake of my own health.
Football is fucked to the core and City (as us fans) are the sacrificial lambs.
I will always follow City and rile against the dishonesty but perhaps when chatting to strangers who ask which club I follow i will simply say " i dont really follow football" (which will in essence, be true).
But always remember the vindictive rules being purposefully used to intimidate and destroy one club "is nothing like nazi Germany."
The rules are the rules.
Think we're being a bit precious here, with objections to the use of 'guilty or innocent' . We all know we haven't killed , maimed or slaughtered anyone, that accusation is aimed at our 'alleged' owners . Our club is,however, plying its trade under the governance of several footballing bodies and their associated rules and procedures. We have been found 'guilty' of breaching those rules in the past and have coughed up a few £million in 'fines'. There's nothing wrong with using this terminology. We now find ourselves back in an Appeal Court because they've had another bite at the cherry due to the discovery of other alleged transgressions. I don't attempt to understand fully the accounting rules and regs, i bow to your superior knowledge on this one and i am grateful for your posts and updates. I'm only interested in knowing whether we get off, or the punishment stands or perhaps lessened in some way . The label i don't want for our club is Cheat! so only one outcome for me and that is for CAS to uphold our appealSorry to pick up on your post particularly but there's a general point I wanted to make so be assured I'm not having a go at you here.
People are talking about us being "guilty". That's nonsense. We haven't killed or assaulted anyone, we haven't stolen anything. We haven't broken any laws at all in fact. CAS won't find us "guilty" or "innocent". What we've allegedly done is contravene some rules. I can't even find evidence of how these rules were accepted by the majority as all I can see is that a body appointed by UEFA, the Club Financial Control Panel, came up with the rules, which were endorsed by the Executive Committee. So anyone who also says "We signed up to them" is also wrong. They were imposed on UEFA associations whether they liked them or not as far as I can see.
The thing with rules and laws, particularly financial ones, is that they're always open to interpretation. That's why we have commercial courts, tax tribunals, employment tribunals etc. Because when sorting out tax, an acountant may take one view and HMRC an opposing one. It's about interpretation and that often involves deciding what the spirit of the rule was. It's also about what you think you can legally get away with.
The central question with our alleged breach is does it matter where Etihad and the other two Abu Dhabi-based sponsors got their money from? And the answer is, as I've shown, yes it could well matter, depending on the circumstances. But my interpretation of the FFP rules is that if Sheikh Mansour didn't pay that money, then we haven't broken any rules and, even if he did, we might not have.
I assume that UEFA's interpretation of the Der Spiegel stories will be one of our key lines of defence (although it might not be) with us arguing they were wrong and we can show that quite categorically. People are also talking about false accounting, which is ridiculous. If Etihad gave us £50m and we recorded that as £50m sponsorship then we've done things quite correctly. If, on the other hand, Etihad gave us £10m and Sheikh Mansour gave us the other £40m, which we recorded as being fom Etihad, then we could have been seen to have misreported the income. but I'm pretty confident we did things by the book.
So please can we not talk about us being "guilty" and this being some sort of court case that will establish our guilt or innocence. It will, I believe, establish if UEFA's interpretation and implementation of its own processes and procedures was correct and whether they had any genuine grounds for re-opening our case.
Think we're being a bit precious here, with objections to the use of 'guilty or innocent' . We all know we haven't killed , maimed or slaughtered anyone, that accusation is aimed at our 'alleged' owners . Our club is,however, plying its trade under the governance of several footballing bodies and their associated rules and procedures. We have been found 'guilty' of breaching those rules in the past and have coughed up a few £million in 'fines'. There's nothing wrong with using this terminology. We now find ourselves back in an Appeal Court because they've had another bite at the cherry due to the discovery of other alleged transgressions. I don't attempt to understand fully the accounting rules and regs, i bow to your superior knowledge on this one and i am grateful for your posts and updates. I'm only interested in knowing whether we get off, or the punishment stands or perhaps lessened in some way . The label i don't want for our club is Cheat! so only one outcome for me and that is for CAS to uphold our appeal