Matty said:
If it is indeed the third party IP sale then that raises the issue of what happens in a year or so's time when the name of the third party is revealed (as will happen) and the IP sale turns out to be completely above board and perfectly acceptable? By that stage UEFA will have already fined us £50m, and reduced our Champion's League squad for this season (plus probably a similar punishment for next season, when the same issues will arise). Can we claim back the £50m? What about our Champion's League campaign? That will have long gone. Can we sue for potential lost earnings? If we go out in the 2nd round again could we argue that with a full 25 man squad we'd have progressed further? UEFA are playing with fire here.
Having spent the weekend looking into what the squad size reduction means for City, I'd suggest that we are fighting not just the financial sanctions, but also this particular sanction. A 21 man squad with 8 "English" players would leave us with a huge problem in registering players for next season's competition. We'd effectively be limited to 13 "foreign" players, and this is with me including Richards and Rodwell in our calculations. If we were to lose those two then the picture becomes even more complicated.
HART* PANT
NASTY KOMPANY CLICHY* KOLAROV RICHARDS* ZABA DEMI
DINHO NAVAS MILNER* NASRI RODWELL* SILVA GARCIA TOURE
DZEKO AGUERO JOVETIC NEGREDO
That's 21 players right there, and there's only 5 homegrown players in there two of whom are Richards and Rodwell. If we lose the appeal and/or are have our squad limit imposed I don't see how we pick a CL squad strong enough to do well in the competition without replacing at least two of our first team regulars with English players.
This is beginning to feel like a huge clusterfuck of problems.
