SteveinBeds said:
I have no specialist knowledge of this field but I have been involved in the run up to a number of commercial law cases going to the English and European Courts. Invariably, the leading counsel advising the parties will tell them that if you consider that almost all of the facts are on your side, there is still a 15-20% chance of the case being decided against you.
In a case such as this, involving new rules, the application of accounting standards, regular meetings throughout a period to discuss the issue and complex transfer pricing aspects, the chance of a counter-intuitive decision must be higher than 20%.
All of the above applies to both parties, which is why, if I was advising either side, I would urge them to explore the extent to which any "middle ground" can be found to settle.
From City's perspective (especially all of us fans!) it will be hard to accept any penalty which is not derisory but there are, sadly, some prices worth paying even if our gut feel tells us not.
As a final point, all of the the above applies to the conniving UEFA top dogs (how polite and mild mannered I am being today!) which means that they will be being advised to find some middle ground.
Brilliant post.
The thing is though, if it does go to court, UEFA could be seen as the 'reasonable' party for having offered a prior settlement which we rejected. On the flip side, City could argue that any punishment was unfair, because by international accounting standards, we have complied and were left with no choice but to decline the offer and seek legal redress.
Platini is being blamed for all of this, but it shouldn't be forgotten that the Champions League only came about because of the threat from the G14 to break away from UEFA and form a European Super League. All said and done, Platini is just their Patsy.
I know a lot of us have said fuck UEFA, let's pull out of next year's competition and thus devalue it, but this is EXACTLY what the G14 want. The Champions League thrived just fine without us and I'm sure it will continue to without us even if we are the Premier League champions (which is still not a forgone conclusion.
Real, Barca, Bayern, ManUre, Milan, Juve, Inter, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea. These are the top drawer teams who fans tune in to watch. The Champions League can survive without 1 or 2 of them for a few seasons (Liverpool, Rags, Milan, Inter, Juve), but if they were all to up sticks en masse, say 'fuck you UEFA' and set up their threatened invitation only league, the Champions League would be reduced to being akin to the Europa League and we all know it.
It's the G14 who are the problem and it's they where we should be concentrating our efforts. What we need to do imo, is not to call for the scrapping of FFP, but for its re-formulation as something that is truly fair. We should call for unsustainable debtto be tackled and not legitimate equity investment. We should call for a better distribution of funds throughout football from the top to the bottom and we should call for clear fresh rules about football from FIFA that doesn't stop ambitious clubs and protect the elite thus forming a cartel.
We can only effect UEFA from inside the organisation and not outside it. I hope we choose to fight, but we need to bee tactical and tear the enemy apart from within and use every resource we have at our disposal to do so. Let us legally and ethically highlight what we know is wrong in football and what they're trying to do to us and in doing so hopefully the law will deal with the G14 qnd UEFA, because on our own with FFP breathing down our necks we don't stand a chance against the corrupt bastards because they are acting as Judge and Jury!
