Are Accenture related to Deloitte or something? If they are related in any way, it's not good to see a managing director talking absolute nonsense City while banging their Liverpool drum.
“There is no evidence that…..” 11 times CAS said that.
I thought it was 13 instances? but I suppose it doesn't make much difference either way.
The phrase "artificially inflate" is arbitrary nonsense too. That wasn't what UEFA or anyone else who knew what the case was about were arguing because they had no case for that. Not like they did with PSG(the ones who are owned by a state, who do have links to UEFA, via lucrative beIN contracts and members of their executive boards).
As for the disguised owner funding allegations. Besides the fact that they had no evidence, only out of context emails and speculation. I don't know why more people didn't consider that Eithad are(unlike Manchester City or the CFG or ADUG) an organisation which is owned and backed by the state of Abu Dhabi. Who have access to some of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. They cover the airlines losses, pay it's bills and contractual obligations, because they are the owner of that airline. That was the case long before City had any takeover.
They have to decide what its is that they believe: That City are owned by a state or Sheikh Mansour? They can't have both.
That is to say, either they want us to believe:
That a state backed airline, needed one royal to cover their sponsorship agreement, to a football club they don't own. "You cover it, it's your club". Which isn't likely IMO, they want that airline to succeed long term and sponsorships are part of their strategy. It's an expense they would cover like any other. It's not special just because certain people don't like City.
or
That a state secretly bought a football club in 2008 before FFP had even been agreed upon(2009?) or a draft of rules had even been created. At a time where the rules around fit and proper owners were basically none existent too. FFP wouldn't have prevented Abu Dhabi from owning a football club even if was around in 2008. They want us to believe Abu Dhabi did all that and foresaw so much, yet they somehow didn't plan for shortfalls and how to cover them from the get go(a built-in structure), without the need for any back and forth? Does that make sense?
When I see people spouting arbitrary arguments like "See, Etihad take losses, so it's artificially inflated right?" (no btw for any anti-city crusaders reading, that's not what the phrase means). It's almost like some have the belief that Abu Dhabi are only propping up the airline, just so they can secretly fund City... Which is absurd when you think about it. Is there a more expensive way to do it than that?
Some of them seem to have slightly changed their tunes(even Der Spiegel, unless I read it wrong). They've accepted that City are indeed majority owned by Sheikh Mansour and have instead shifted their focus to the more tenuous links between people who work at City and Abu Dhabi, hence the back and forth in those emails... But the problem for them, is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with this and the positions those board members held/hold was never a secret(publicly available information, in fact). These people would have been chosen because they were people that either Sheikh Mansour or Kahldoon know and trust(value).