Prestwich_Blue said:
BlueAnorak said:
PWC may have been allowed to look at the deal. We don't know. Lets wait for the announcement of any punishment by UEFA and City's response.
I doubt PWC would be be prepaired comment on whether a deal is fair valve or not - especially if the deal is something radically new.
If it's not to a related party then fair value doesn't come into it.
There is an interesting argument as to whether 'related party' means what it means in other contexts (e.g. GAAP) or whether it has an autonomous meaning within the FFPR. There are several legal concepts, by way of comparison, that have an ordinary meaning in every day domestic legal use but a slightly different one when used within e.g. European Union regulations.
If this argument has any validity, it might mean that even though a transaction would not be a related party transaction for ordinary domestic accounting purposes, it might still be a related party transaction for the purposes of complying with FFPR.
I can see the theoretical argument why 'related party' might have a different meaning within FFPR - basically, it depends upon the intention of the lawmakers when they devised the FFP rules. But as I understand it, the definition of related party transaction in the FFPR is basically cut and pasted from general accounting standards (I can't remember which, but IIRC they are in use across the European Union and you would think that choice is quite deliberate).
So what I can't understand is, if 'related party' means something different in FFPR why the fuck did they use the definition that already has a settled meaning? It's like inventing a flying machine and calling it a submarine - apt to mislead, you might think.
Also, our accountants have been working (quite reasonably) on the assumption that 'related party' does indeed carry its settled meaning. For UEFA now to suggest that it does not, never having done so before, rather begs the question how fair any sanction can possibly be if the reason for breach of FFPR is that a club genuinely and honestly believed it was complying with the regulations bearing in mind the settled definition of 'related party' which
appeared to be adopted by the FFPR. For UEFA now to say related party transactions have an autonomous FFPR definition when we have proceeded for the last 3 years that they do not is basically shifting the goalposts. Even if that produces a breach, that cannot legitimately lead to a sanction.