I am not so sanguine. I don’t believe we have done anything seriously wrong and I regularly posted “we will win” in the run up to the CAS hearing. BUT, CAS was a genuinely independent body, this tribunal will not be. The premier league will in effect pick the tribunal, hear the evidence and pronounce the verdict. Judge, jury and executioner.
CAS was an appeal of a verdict from a seriously corrupt panel; there is no appeal here even if a contrarian verdict is given. Influential members of the league, their fellow travellers, the media and not least Richard Masters are determined to see us punished regardless.
It is not beyond possibility that members of the panel, whoever they are, have already made up their minds and I think that is why we are challenging beforehand as we will have no chance of a sympathetic ear during the hearing. Remember the hateful eight had never seen any evidence whatsoever, not even those e-mails, before they signed that round robin.
BRACE, BRACE, BRACE.