FIFA investigation: No transfer ban

[PrezIke]

Leaked emails hey this what you relying on. :/

It isn't me that anyone has to worry about, but the general public, who aren't City fans sure believe it.

I also am a huge supporter of the club, but it looks pretty clear to me that we did try to circumvent the rules. The club did not deny the emails existed, they attacked how they were obtained.

I'll just add that I believe other clubs have probably done the same thing, and within wealthy people and massive corporations "clever" ways to get around rules in accounting are the norm and why they are rarely punished for their financial misdeeds, but gain significantly more capital than the rest of us as well.

 

[Ban-jani]

It isn't me that anyone has to worry about, but the general public, who aren't City fans sure believe it.

I also am a huge supporter of the club, but it looks pretty clear to me that we did try to circumvent the rules. The club did not deny the emails existed, they attacked how they were obtained.

I'll just add that I believe other clubs have probably done the same thing, and within wealthy people and massive corporations "clever" ways to get around rules in accounting are the norm and why they are rarely punished for their financial misdeeds, but gain significantly more capital than the rest of us as well.

The club said they were taken out of context.

 

[PrezIke]

That is an allegation not proof of anything,trust the club has the evidence it needs,as for popularity,it's not going to stop us growing our fan base,fans are only interested in what the team does and the trophies we win,the club has said very forcefully we have done nothing wrong and have hit the first,we wouldn't do that for the fun of it

I hope so. It's all very murky to me from a "moral" standpoint and why I'm not so excited about any of this.

FFP is awful, clearly a tool to come after us and help protect the old guard, so I of course dislike that. However, I'm not also going to go around and celebrate also playing "dirty" which I am sorry mate, I do believe we likely did, even if the game is rigged.

I can accept that, because I can see why we did it. We could very well have felt FFP was unfair and were like, "You play dirty? Well, so can we and get away with it because you're getting away with your own nonsense."

Problem is we got caught. PSG have now as well, regarding UEFA's handling, but that was UEFA not PSG.

It won't stop us supporting, but it might prevent some from becoming fans, which is the opposite of the club's long term goals. Maybe this will be just a blip, and I agree most average fans could probably care less who become City fans. They see winning and attractive football and are glad to not be bothered by the rest. Betting against that concern is something we will see if the club will take.

 

[Gorton_Tubster]

It is outlined in the Football Leaks documents/emails, but as far as I understand we tried to cover up or over-inflate or create "shadow groups" that generated some key sources of revenue to the club in order to meet FFP rules. Here's a quote from The Guardian about what was written in Der Spiegel:

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...y-uefa-investigation-ffp-champions-league-ban



So, "getting away" with this on a "technicality" is quite normal if you're a wealthy person or company with fantastic lawyers, but the public fallout has to be worth it. When you are a highly public company who depends on popularity via heavy media coverage like a football club, this is not good for the bottom line, I gather. the general way to deal with it is accept some form of punishment in a settlement (Think Erin Brockovich or Monsonto) so you can move on.

But we already settled and lied further in that settlement. This looks even worse.

If we decide to not care about the public fallout then so be it. I accept that, but not sure the club wants to take that risk even if we are acting like we are. Not sure if who is bluffing and feels a bit like a game of chicken.

We're as good as guilty in the media's eyes.. Even if we are found not guilty. Public perception has already been created.

 

[PrezIke]

The club said they were taken out of context.

True. Not clear what that means though. "Out of context" can also mean regarding the club's and our feelings about the injustice of FFP or UEFA's general treatment of the club.

Isn't that often what we say and why we boo them?

 

[Ban-jani]

True. Not clear what that means though. "Out of context" can also mean regarding the club's and our feelings about the injustice of FFP or UEFA's general treatment of the club.

Isn't that often what we say and why we boo them?

It means that the email they’re actually referring to didn’t mean what they’re claiming.

It was one email out of thousands that’s under suspicion.

 

[waspish]

It isn't me that anyone has to worry about, but the general public, who aren't City fans sure believe it.

I also am a huge supporter of the club, but it looks pretty clear to me that we did try to circumvent the rules. The club did not deny the emails existed, they attacked how they were obtained.

I'll just add that I believe other clubs have probably done the same thing, and within wealthy people and massive corporations "clever" ways to get around rules in accounting are the norm and why they are rarely punished for their financial misdeeds, but gain significantly more capital than the rest of us as well.

The only thing they came up with was a rule where bent it that they didnt cover in there cheating ffp! Its like fcuk me we didnt think of that why didnt we make a rule for that in ffp.

We have broken no rules that is a fact.

 

[ManCitizens.]

Apologies if that didn't make sense. I'll try to explain better.

There's a legal argument that City would likely win in court because the Football Leaks documents were obtained illegally, no? We also already settled with UEFA who via this agreement acknowledged that we broke FFP rules and would accept the fine and smaller squad size.

A number of our outspoken fans on Twitter who appear to understand legal matters/accounting/running a club suggest City won't be banned because UEFA's legal argument is not strong and we could sue them (I believe).

My point is such a lawsuit will make the club look even poorer in the eyes of the public because even if the documents were obtained illegally, and there was a settlement, is anyone arguing what City did isn't true? Trying to hide behind a technicality in court, when we are already dealing with a constant barrage of negative press would make us look even worse, possibly, to the public and we would be smeared significantly. Is that what the club wants to help it grow?

With the PSG FFP revelations in Tariq Panja's piece in the NY Times on how they got away with no punishment for the summer of Neymar and Mbappe, UEFA are under even more pressure to do something about the Football Leaks "revelations" with City because of what appears to be some form of corruption (disagreement between one body who felt they clearly violated FFP, vs. the former Belgian PM, Yves Leterme, who disagreed and ironically enough is the lead investigator/decision maker in our case now, and who many are led to believe dislikes us).

And of course Yves Leterme, ironically enough, is the one who is deciding our fate and the other NY Times article is very set on punishing us/giving us a CL ban.

He looks quite bad from the PSG investigation. You think he will want to do the same thing (i.e. let us walk with little to no punishment) after that it was revealed he let PSG walk when the former judge who helped investigate PSG, Cunha Rodrigues said, “The decision to close the case, was manifestly erroneous.”?

That is what has me concerned.

The general footballing public don’t like us anyway, us accepting a ban will only justify their hate. Other fans will dislike us either way and I couldn’t give a damn.

We’ve just agreed a fine with Fifa, some opposition fans are comparing this to getting away with murder ffs. Fuck them all and fight for our club, if we lose so be it. Fans in England will soon regret any ban when we walk the league, unless we’re getting banned for multiple years players won’t want to leave and any lost revenue will just mean no new players for a season.

 

[kaz7]

I hope so. It's all very murky to me from a "moral" standpoint and why I'm not so excited about any of this.

FFP is awful, clearly a tool to come after us and help protect the old guard, so I of course dislike that. However, I'm not also going to go around and celebrate also playing "dirty" which I am sorry mate, I do believe we likely did, even if the game is rigged.

I can accept that, because I can see why we did it. We could very well have felt FFP was unfair and were like, "You play dirty? Well, so can we and get away with it because you're getting away with your own nonsense."

Problem is we got caught. PSG have now as well, regarding UEFA's handling, but that was UEFA not PSG.

It won't stop us supporting, but it might prevent some from becoming fans, which is the opposite of the club's long term goals. Maybe this will be just a blip, and I agree most average fans could probably care less who become City fans. They see winning and attractive football and are glad to not be bothered by the rest. Betting against that concern is something we will see if the club will take.

I suggest you should not be so sure that we have done anything wrong here,you seem awful keen to damn the club
Take a chill pill

 

[PrezIke]

We're as good as guilty in the media's eyes.. Even if we are found not guilty. Public perception has already been created.

I agree. I guess the club can just accept that, perhaps if they assess this will change over time and City becomes further established as a top club and gains more fans that the Liverpool, Utd other supporters in the UK at least will become less dominant in the media.

However, aspects of Brexit, xenophobia and populism I suspect affect other football supporters who dislike City for being run by non-white foreigners who gain what seems to be unlimited wealth from something unearned (oil), which I actually think is part of the resentment from some working class fans. A lot of wealthy/billionaire owners could receive such scrutiny, but the average football fan doesn't really think about hedge funds or clandestine companies, venture capital, etc. but oil and Arabs are easier to understand and dislike as a result.

These are still part of why non-City fans on the farther right and some in the so-called farther left have City on their most hated list, and their voices are quite loud.

Is this something the club can overcome over time? Good question. Maybe it is best to just accept this as what will happen, but I can still see it being harmful to profit and growth.