Football Leaks/Der Spiegel articles

[BlueAnorak]

Time is a major factor that suits our rivals, at the moment it is 10 months of uncertainty among our players and the players we go after, It is 10 months of our sponsors having a negative reaction on tv and it is 10 months of City being dragged through the mud, it is has and will cost City a fortune , so yes 10 months even without your excellent appraisal is a minimum even without charge

This is very true. But the longer the delay, the less sure they will be of winning.

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

City have two ways of attacking an adverse verdict and any punishment UEFA might impose. The first is itself two pronged: they do not challenge the validity of FFP as yet but appeal to CAS that UEFA did not carry out an investigation which conformed to the process UEFA itself has laid down and anyway the evidence, when considered in its entirety, shows that the rules were not broken at all. If this fails City can take the court to the ECJ and argue that FFP is not enforceable because it is a flagrant violation of the right to invest. There are other grounds on which to challenge FFP but this seems the clearest and most obvious.

The FC Sion case did not raise any such question of a fundamental breach of European law. The Bosman case had already established the principle that the football authorities were subject to the law just as other bodies are. Certainly FIFA behaved with arrogance and intimidation in the FC Sion case but they have been served a timely reminder since that the law has a very long arm and Mr Blatter and his colleagues are rather humbler these days. And should City secure a judgement that FFP is contrary to the law any punishment would be invalid and a claim for commercial damage could cost the football authorities a literal fortune. If City showed that FFP was the work of a cartel which also abrogated to itself the enforcement of its own regulations much of the "football establishment"/"football royalty" would be ruined.

I don't know how the adjudicatory commission will respond, because Ceferin appears to represent the minor, especially central and eastern European, leagues who wish to restrain the financial dominance of the major leagues and so see FFP as essential (though inadequate!) but they have to be very careful and realise that they probably have to be on rock solid ground every step of the way. Pandering to a cartel could be disastrous.

 

[GaudinoMotors]

Being doing a lot of reading on this and came across this article, it's really long but very interesting. I haven't had the time to follow up on it to find out what happened but I assume FIFA got their way or we would all be familar with it. The gist of the story is FC Sion tried to sue UEFA for banning them from European Competition, a local court in Switzerland agreed with Sion but UEFA just ignored them. Essentially they told the Swiss FA to sanction Sion or they would get FIFA to ban all Swiss teams from playing football at any level. They duly obliged with a 36 point deduction.

Now we aren't Sion and the FA/Premier league aren't the Swiss FA but my reading of it is we won't be suing UEFA regardless of outcome.

http://thestudentlawyer.com/2012/08/22/fc-sion-vs-the-world/

I suppose there's suing and then there's is finding an organization fundamentally in breach of EU law and deliberately targeting and restricting one of it's members. Will be very interesting over the next few months. I suspect UEFA will impose a harsh punishment to save face - but that it will be suspended.

 

[waspish]

I suppose there's suing and then there's is finding an organization fundamentally in breach of EU law and deliberately targeting and restricting one of it's members. Will be very interesting over the next few months. I suspect UEFA will impose a harsh punishment to save face - but that it will be suspended.

We ain't getting punished we have done nothing wrong!

 

[The perfect fumble]

We ain't getting punished we have done nothing wrong!

The two are not mutually exclusive.

 

[salfordbluetrue]

Which is why this will go far beyond CAS and result in claims for restrictions of trade and defamation. Astronomical amounts that will force uefa to seek a compromise and slap us on the wrists. Problem is - the cartel have backed them into a corner now and want us punished unfairly or disproportionately. Major fck up by Uefa for being lent on and letting it get to this.

City were disproportionately punished last time and our Owners took it, then as in now depends on how our Owner feels? we only know what we want

 

[salfordbluetrue]

This is very true. But the longer the delay, the less sure they will be of winning.

Without adapting the rules i do not believe they have even got evidence, so the delay is the biggest punishment, in my view

 

[Canyouseethesky]

I suppose there's suing and then there's is finding an organization fundamentally in breach of EU law and deliberately targeting and restricting one of it's members. Will be very interesting over the next few months. I suspect UEFA will impose a harsh punishment to save face - but that it will be suspended.

That is just too messy, it's possible by the time this is all done and dusted EU law won't apply to us anyway. Then there is the fact we could go down that route and start proceedings challenging a law only to be told to do one as it doesn't apply to no EU businesses.

I've never really thought about this until now but how does the Bosman rule affect non EU club's? Can a Russian team for example still demand payment for a player out of contract or have UEFA appiled the rule to all UEFA nations? Assuming it's the latter then I assume once Brexit is complete British football will just agree to follow EU law. As I said above it's too messy with too many unknowns. Also Pep has said in just about every press conference that we will accept the punishment if we're found guilty.

 

[squirtyflower]

City have two ways of attacking an adverse verdict and any punishment UEFA might impose. The first is itself two pronged: they do not challenge the validity of FFP as yet but appeal to CAS that UEFA did not carry out an investigation which conformed to the process UEFA itself has laid down and anyway the evidence, when considered in its entirety, shows that the rules were not broken at all. If this fails City can take the court to the ECJ and argue that FFP is not enforceable because it is a flagrant violation of the right to invest. There are other grounds on which to challenge FFP but this seems the clearest and most obvious.

The FC Sion case did not raise any such question of a fundamental breach of European law. The Bosman case had already established the principle that the football authorities were subject to the law just as other bodies are. Certainly FIFA behaved with arrogance and intimidation in the FC Sion case but they have been served a timely reminder since that the law has a very long arm and Mr Blatter and his colleagues are rather humbler these days. And should City secure a judgement that FFP is contrary to the law any punishment would be invalid and a claim for commercial damage could cost the football authorities a literal fortune. If City showed that FFP was the work of a cartel which also abrogated to itself the enforcement of its own regulations much of the "football establishment"/"football royalty" would be ruined.

I don't know how the adjudicatory commission will respond, because Ceferin appears to represent the minor, especially central and eastern European, leagues who wish to restrain the financial dominance of the major leagues and so see FFP as essential (though inadequate!) but they have to be very careful and realise that they probably have to be on rock solid ground every step of the way. Pandering to a cartel could be disastrous.

Your first reasoning seems very prophetic now

 

[Centurions]

Your first reasoning seems very prophetic now

If he'd posted before the news broke, then yes it would have been prophetic :)

Edit: That is presuming that he'd heard the news beforehand.