CAS judgement: UEFA ban overturned, City exonerated (report out p603)

[Cobwebcat]

It is being widely reported that nobody associated with City knew the decision on Friday. Same at UEFA's side. It was genuinely given to both parties yesterday morning a couple of hours before it was published. That's kinda mental. We really did take a 'shit or bust' approach with this case.

Looking forward to the full judgment and Stefan's analysis of it. Will be interesting to see what it says, but my bet is it'll say more or less that everything in the leaks pre 2014 the panel simply couldn't look at, and the only post 2014 issue was the Etihad sponsorship deal which UEFA were never going to be able to prove anything about.

In the end it really was as simple as a lot of us thought it would be at the start in terms of what the main issues at play were.

Let’s hope that it wasn’t just a time bar as the PL doesn’t have one. So far it looks like it wasn’t just a time issue. Who is to say the time barred ones would have been lost or won anyway.

 

[BillyShears]

Yes although maybe City had some guide from the conduct of the hearing.

I hope the media look into the UEFA investigatory process. How could they have prosecuted this case? It does seem to be a strong case of club bias overwhelming the regulatory process, and that really should not happen.

I am glad now that City went through the CAS process because for the first time we can say to the rest of football you were wrong, and you have been proven to be wrong. It was a draining process for us all.

It sounds like the lawyers had a fair idea at the end of day 3 how it was going to go.

CAS was our only route soon as UEFA and Yves Letmer decided to go after City, but it was still a risky strategy. Again, I think the rumours of a settlement being offered to City back in November with no CL ban by UEFA was bollocks. Clearly, UEFA's aim was maximum public relations damage for City. Their lawyers will have told them of the paucity of facts in their favour in the case, and yet they went ahead with it.

It was politically motivated by pressure from other clubs and the media. That makes the victory even sweeter for me.

 

[Centurions]

Try reading all my posts before flying off the handle. I don’t believe it is possible have even ‘alleged offences’.

if a game is rigged explicitly against you, you cannot by definition cheat.

However if you continue playing the game with the same rigged rules and likely to be under even more intense scrutiny you have to be clever about it.

'Flying off the handle'? You must be a delicate flower if that's what you think my post was, perhaps you're just a bit miffed at some of the alerts you're getting for a not very well thought out post.

 

[SWP's back]

@karen7 is famous on RAWK:

“But the thing is, the bald one has to replace Silva, Fernandinho and Aguero, and find a centre half to fill Kompany’s boots. He might fool the Karen7’s of this world that Foden is the new Messi, but he needs big money to get in replacements. And without Champions league, he is going to need bigger wages to convince star players to sit at home watching CL on their 96” plasma screens”

Plasma screens? **** is stuck in the 90’s.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

Ziegler's piece basically seems to say that there was bemusement that UEFA pressed ahead with some charges which were obviously (to paraphrase) time-barred.
It also suggests that there really wasn't much to UEFA's case apart from the emails.

What I take from is it is that as City didn't really engage with the process, the UEFA cases appears to be:
Prosecution: some emails.
Defence: nil.

If that's right, then it would probably be found guilty as charged from the evidence at hand.

 

[SWP's back]

Let’s hope that it wasn’t just a time bar as the PL doesn’t have one. So far it looks like it wasn’t just a time issue. Who is to say the time barred ones would have been lost or won anyway.

There were no PL FFP rules before 2015 anyway.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

Times probably. Ziegler's generally been good on this

He has been good on this since last Christmas. Before that he, and the Times, were swallowing the UEFA line and were one of the recipients of leaks. I believe that they eventually realised they were being used to spread misinformation and since then their coverage has been mostly balanced and accurate. One of the leaks (from UEFA) about City facing a ban was shortly before Ceferin's trip to the Etihad. I don't think that was a co-incidence.

 

[BillyShears]

Let’s hope that it wasn’t just a time bar as the PL doesn’t have one. So far it looks like it wasn’t just a time issue. Who is to say the time barred ones would have been lost or won anyway.

The PL can't and won't do anything to City. That story will quietly disappear into the ether over the coming weeks.

Look at it like this - City's intransigence to the charges brought by UEFA made them go to war rather than seek ANY kind of settlement. The PL will absolutely NOT want to have one of it's top stakeholders going to war with it over historic financial issues when the club is so well run financially and so financially powerful.

Personally I think that every single reference I've seen to PL charges since yesterday's ruling is about appeasing the dumbest rival supporters who will cling to any hope that City are going to be 'stopped' by football's authorities.

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

Judging by that Athletic article, we owe Pep and he's been magnificent off the pitch. One or two year extension and whoever he wants in the market, ta.

 

[IBlue]

Plasma screens? **** is stuck in the 90’s.

Wonder where they nick them from