I listened to the Guardian Football Weekly's FFP/CAS special so you don't have to.
Here's a summary of what was said.
Panja - Charles Flint QC was the driving force behind whether the ban stood up at UEFA's end and this is being seen as very bad for him.
Panja - UEFA checked with in-house counsel and outside lawyers if they could go ahead with the 5 year limits and they decided yes. Apparently he spoke to "one of the architects of this rule" who said it was a bit vague but pretty black and white, and someone else said "there was a race against time to get it filed in May 2019 before the deadline".
Ronay - Doesn't want to buy into conspiracy theories, but the incompetence of the ban, and the excessive ban (2 years for £40m and some lying) makes him think there was a vindictive element.
Ronay wants everyone to know he doesn't give a shit about FFP and what's the point of stopping people who are good for the money investing. He's more interested in state ownership and sponsorship. Panja points to the fact we only have Abu Dhabi sponsors because of FFP - if it wasn't brought in, we wouldn't need so many AD based sponsors.
Both talk about how can you become competitive in football without investment.
Panja - FFP is being reviewed at UEFA. They were waiting for the City dispute to be over before announcing it so as to not be seen to be doing it to catch City (echoes of Annex 11).
Barry + Ronay both think the PL will do nothing.
Part 2 is a self styled existential debate about why we love football and what FFP, state ownership and the modern game have to do with it. There's not much worthwhile in there.
Panja - UEFA are thinking of limiting the number of professional footballers at a club so Juventus & Chelsea can't horde the good young promising players. And when those players show promise and improve, they get bought for proper sums of money. Also proposing a luxury tax, so if you overspend you pay a tax that is redistributed to rivals.
Part 3
Begins with why CAS exists, is it fit? Is Tebas a loon?
Was Football leaks a force for good? Barney - Probably, the more stuff that's held up to the light, the better. Not just City.
What next for City?
Barney - Eulogises about City for a few minutes. Good model in sporting terms, not hollywood, don't buy the very best players in the world, play wonderful football, represent what we love to see on the pitch. Convinced we will win CL, he hopes against PSG in the final just to piss off UEFA.
They talk about if we'll spend big in the summer, say nah not really. Barry thinks players might be tiring of Pep and need freshening up. We need a CB. Barney thinks we need a new Fernandinho and maybe a CF.
Will we spend big? Barney says that ironically what football really needs right now is a big investment. Panja agrees, we would be the saviour of the football market if we pumped some money in and got things going.
Then they talk about United-Southampton, Leicester being in trouble, Wycombe etc. for 5 minutes.
In summary, I actually don't think either Barney Ronay or Panja specifically don't like City, or they've been incredibly restrained if they do. Neither is that upset by the verdict, neither thinks it's a bad day for football etc. Barney is just a professional cynic/misanthrope at this point and just doesn't like modern football, and we're as modern football as it gets.
Panja seems like he's not bothered particularly but clearly he gets all his info from UEFA so that informs his articles and makes him the indirect spokesman of people who hate us.
They're not Miguel Delaney or Nick Harris, lets put it that way.
