PL charge City for alleged breaches of financial rules

[chaddblue]

Tonight I've been speaking to a relative who works in one of the commercial departments at the club. Apart from when the charges were announced, nothing more has been mentioned to them. There has been no mention of any risks to the club or their employment if things went badly. As far as they're concerned its strictly business as usual and pushing on with all the plans and projects that were already in place beforehand

One interesting bit of info is that only the basics of the north stand development has been made public. There's all sorts of features and plans intended to make the complex into a major tourist attraction

 

[LeonardoDaVnci]

He was called upon as an expert witness in football finance, to support the claimants’ position in a loss of earnings claim against City in the Bennell case.

How the claimants’ legal representatives reached the bottom of the particular barrel they found Harris in, I couldn’t tell you.

Now you could certainly question why someone with such a barely disguised agenda against City was admitted as an apparently impartial witness in a case against the Club - and if you did hold the perfectly reasonable belief that he’s being paid by someone somewhere to generate anti-City content, so prolific and utterly myopic is his output, then his apparent desire to support a damages claim against the Club could certainly be called into question. Whatever the clear and evident merits of the case.

Alternatively he’s simply someone who tried to make a few quid passing himself off as an ‘expert witness’. This can be quite a lucrative sideline if you are actually an expert in a specific subject, for example a specific area of medicine or Finance in this case, to help a non-expert jury understand complex specialist information.

Although given the Judge’s withering assessment, I’m not sure this side hustle has all that promising a future for him!

But whatever the truth of the matter - in this case Nick needed no assistance whatsoever in discrediting himself or his motives. It seems he offered so little insight of note in his representation that the judge made a point of noting his lack of expertise on the subject.

A crushing evisceration of someone who chose the name ‘Sporting Intelligence’ for their website.

The guys a fucking imbecile, with absolutely zero credibility. And that’s coming from a Senior Justice, not from me!

Jeezus, now I'm fully aware of Mr Harris and his work, it defies belief. How can someone be so consumed with hatred for a football club, yes it's big business but it's a sport which just a form of entertainment. There is something go on there deep in his physche but Christ knows what....

 

[Ric]

Unfortunately for him, he really isn’t doing very well for himself.

Its been reported he has quite serious mental health problems, and genuinely needs to access some help and support. He’s also had some very unfortunate luck in his personal life which I’m sure hasn’t helped with his general wellbeing.

He’s clearly a fantasist - which I suspect is linked to his problems - and tries to pass himself off as knowledgeable on a subject it’s painfully apparent he knows nothing about.

He publicly embarrassed himself by being called out by the High Courts for trying to pass himself off as an expert in football finance, when it was abundantly clear as soon as he opened his mouth on the subject that he had no idea what he was talking about - and showed a complete lack of even the most basic understanding on his supposed field of expertise.

He was essentially admonished for being a time waster - like one of those charlatans who pretends they’re a qualified doctor and charges legal firms to be a specialist witness in court, when the reality is they’ve never even attended so much as a single lecture at medical school.

He’s a bedroom fantasist and self-proclaimed ‘specialist’ with absolutely no substance to back up the title he’s anointed himself with.

Undeterred, he continues to publicly embarrass himself on a regular basis by sharing his ‘insights’ through his website and social postings, demonstrating to anyone who interacts with him just how little he grasps about the basics of football finance.

He’s clearly got some very deep rooted psychological problems - so whilst it’s easy and very tempting to laugh at him and dismiss his mindless ramblings as evidence of his rampant idiocy, he’s clearly got himself into a very sad situation and I hope he gets the help he needs.

I think it’s in the public domain that Nick’s wife sadly passed away in 2020, and I can only imagine how devastating that was for him and his kids. I sent him a message of condolence at the time, as these things obviously transcend football rivalries.

Like you, I am however a little concerned about his mental state and increasingly erratic behaviour over the last couple of years.

There was an incident on Twitter that he claimed led to an act of alleged vandalism at his house, in a fairly remote part of Scotland, a few years ago. Even though this was clearly nothing to do with me, and was never actually even verified (despite being reported as fact by Nick Cohen in The Guardian), he seemingly held me personally responsible and repeatedly threatened me with police action.

This escalated to the extent that the FWA and the club themselves became involved. A long story short, we eventually asked for a crime reference number and said I would fully co-operate with any investigation, upon which it all went quiet.

He did, however, block me on Twitter and then sent an abusive text message late one night (he had my mobile number as a result of the aforementioned stuff). A strange episode, from a strange man. I hope he gets the help that he needs, but am glad that I no longer have any interaction with him.

 

[HelloCity]

I think it’s in the public domain that Nick’s wife sadly passed away in 2020, and I can only imagine how devastating that was for him and his kids. I sent him a message of condolence at the time, as these things obviously transcend football rivalries.

Like you, I am however a little concerned about his mental state and increasingly erratic behaviour over the last couple of years.

There was an incident on Twitter that he claimed led to an act of alleged vandalism at his house, in a fairly remote part of Scotland, a few years ago. Even though this was clearly nothing to do with me, and was never actually even verified (despite being reported as fact by Nick Cohen in The Guardian), he seemingly held me personally responsible and repeatedly threatened me with police action.

This escalated to the extent that the FWA and the club themselves became involved. A long story short, we eventually asked for a crime reference number and said I would fully co-operate with any investigation, upon which it all went quiet.

He did, however, block me on Twitter and then sent an abusive text message late one night (he had my mobile number as a result of the aforementioned stuff). A strange episode, from a strange man. I hope he gets the help that he needs, but am glad that I no longer have any interaction with him.

Bloody hell.

It’s not normal to be so fixated on something in such a negative manner. It’s not healthy even. Rather than raging about a football club he should be focusing on his family and stop dipping himself into so much negativity.

How he acts towards City, I couldn’t ever feel about anything in football. When Utd were winning the treble and we were in the lower leagues, yeah I was annoyed/gutted they’d won and didn’t look forward to the Utd ‘banter’, but I can’t say their success became an obsession to the point I was shaking with rage.

 

[cheekybids]

Tonight I've been speaking to a relative who works in one of the commercial departments at the club. Apart from when the charges were announced, nothing more has been mentioned to them. There has been no mention of any risks to the club or their employment if things went badly. As far as they're concerned its strictly business as usual and pushing on with all the plans and projects that were already in place beforehand

One interesting bit of info is that only the basics of the north stand development has been made public. There's all sorts of features and plans intended to make the complex into a major tourist attraction

I think it’s in the public domain that Nick’s wife sadly passed away in 2020, and I can only imagine how devastating that was for him and his kids. I sent him a message of condolence at the time, as these things obviously transcend football rivalries.

Like you, I am however a little concerned about his mental state and increasingly erratic behaviour over the last couple of years.

There was an incident on Twitter that he claimed led to an act of alleged vandalism at his house, in a fairly remote part of Scotland, a few years ago. Even though this was clearly nothing to do with me, and was never actually even verified (despite being reported as fact by Nick Cohen in The Guardian), he seemingly held me personally responsible and repeatedly threatened me with police action.

This escalated to the extent that the FWA and the club themselves became involved. A long story short, we eventually asked for a crime reference number and said I would fully co-operate with any investigation, upon which it all went quiet.

He did, however, block me on Twitter and then sent an abusive text message late one night (he had my mobile number as a result of the aforementioned stuff). A strange episode, from a strange man. I hope he gets the help that he needs, but am glad that I no longer have any interaction with him.

That’s really sad & a shame that friends & colleagues can’t guide him to reach out for support. If he lived in Beswick then it’s possible he could have a case but he really, really isn’t that important for people to travel to Scotland to chuck a brick at his windows.

 

[Chris in London]

I think it’s in the public domain that Nick’s wife sadly passed away in 2020, and I can only imagine how devastating that was for him and his kids. I sent him a message of condolence at the time, as these things obviously transcend football rivalries.

Like you, I am however a little concerned about his mental state and increasingly erratic behaviour over the last couple of years.

There was an incident on Twitter that he claimed led to an act of alleged vandalism at his house, in a fairly remote part of Scotland, a few years ago. Even though this was clearly nothing to do with me, and was never actually even verified (despite being reported as fact by Nick Cohen in The Guardian), he seemingly held me personally responsible and repeatedly threatened me with police action.

This escalated to the extent that the FWA and the club themselves became involved. A long story short, we eventually asked for a crime reference number and said I would fully co-operate with any investigation, upon which it all went quiet.

He did, however, block me on Twitter and then sent an abusive text message late one night (he had my mobile number as a result of the aforementioned stuff). A strange episode, from a strange man. I hope he gets the help that he needs, but am glad that I no longer have any interaction with him.

The “like” button seems an inadequate reply to this (no disrespect intended to any who may have “like”d it.)

Maybe the forum needs a “sad, slow, resigned shake of the head” button.

 

[halfcenturyup]

The “like” button seems an inadequate reply to this (no disrespect intended to any who may have “like”d it.)

Maybe the forum needs a “sad, slow, resigned shake of the head” button.

Bloody hell, that button would get worn out pretty quickly on here .....

By lawyers replying to my posts, for one thing :)

 

[Paladin]

The “like” button seems an inadequate reply to this (no disrespect intended to any who may have “like”d it.)

Maybe the forum needs a “sad, slow, resigned shake of the head” button.

I stuck a like on it because Ric came across as a thoroughly decent human being, despite considerable hostility from his adversary.

 

[Shads]

If there is a legal expert reading I'd welcome your opinion.... Im assuming MCFC have always followed legal advice on when and how to cooperate. I realise they made a choice to do this and therefore must face any consequences of doing so. However when defending non cooperation charges do the Lawyers use this in mitigation and explain why eg if the PL demands for documentation were beyond the scope of the alleged charges. I believe MCFC will not be accepting any of these charges in exchange for a settlement.

Absolutely. There are all sorts of mitigating factors. Relevance is a huge one, also we cannot be forced to provide documentation that doesn’t exist or for which we are not the custodian of records. There are Etihad and Etisalat documents for example that may be relevant but are in their possession not ours. We cannot be forced to produce those records.
All of that is mitigation.

 

[Shads]

Sort of.

The way it works is that the PL opened an investigation based on the leaked emails in Der Spiegel. As part of their investigation they were entitled to ask for, and we were obliged to provide, certain documents. We failed to do so, almost certainly having taken legal advice, and quite possibly (given the arguments we ran in the subsequent court case) on the basis that we were concerned about confidentiality being maintained.

It is true that the only disclosable documents within that investigation are documents that relate to the matters being investigated. However the rules in place at the time said this:

1. 
   
   
   

So there isn’t really an option to ‘take the fifth,’ so to speak. If there’s an allegation that we have cheated, the PL has the power to request documents that are relevant to that allegation.

It seems to me very likely that since Der Spiegel accused us of systematic cheating over many years the PL’s inquiry was wide enough to cover everything they asked for. Certainly that appears to have been the conclusion in the arbitration which was upheld by the High Court and the Court of Appeal. So whilst in theory we could have said ‘we aren’t providing X, it’s not relevant to your investigation’ the likelihood is that the investigation was so wide everything the PL asked for was potentially relevant. The question of what charges should be brought gets answered at the end of the investigation, not its beginning, so the charges we eventually faced were not relevant to what information we provided.

So to take the Al Jazira contract as an example, if that was all that was being investigated, we might well have said ‘we aren’t providing you with documents about image rights, they are irrelevant to your investigation’ But since the investigation was into, basically, everything , the disclosure requests were within the PL’s powers.

Our failure to comply with that is why, IMO, we are in trouble on the non-cooperation charge.

However the Al Jazira contract is nothing to do with Man City, it was between AJ and Mancini. We have no documents that relate to that contract. We cannot therefore provide them nor be accused of failing to provide them successfully.