I'm no accountant, but I know what equity investment is. Clearly Tariq Panja does not.....
Trying to understand what he was even try to say there was dizzying. That's how you know it's mental gymnastics(triple backflip).
It has me wondering if I understand it correctly. Which is, UEFA's accusation was disguised equity funding but that's based solely on the idea that Sheikh Mansour allegedly paid most of it and that wasn't disclosed in the accounts. The PL have their own term that I summarise as bad faith accounting.
What he is describing(aside from putting people's faces on shirts... arbitrary bs) is related party sponsorship(like PSG's arrangement with their sponsors, which is allowed as long as it's within FMV, why shouldn't it be?). A club hiding that would also breach some rules I imagine but since it was within UEFA's CFCB valuation range for those deals(since at least 2012/13), that would surely be an unnecessary risk to take from City's/Sheikh Mansour's perspective.
Also, if they did do it, you'd think they'd have left no trace of it, even to people working at City, rather than relying on people at the club having to work out how they are cheating the system and those people keeping their mouths shut too(which is what the press/der spiegel, UEFA and the PL have essentially been saying without realising it).
The accusation, if proven, might be used to suggest those deals are related party perhaps. Isn't the whole accusation a little too perfect for the cartel, when you think about it though... Considering having City's deals classed as related party wouldn't have affected City's break even requirement much at all for most, if not all of those years in question and likely will become even more useless to their accusers going forward?
I still believe the state paid that money, which would mean no rules were broken. Does anyone agree though(or can confirm if it's actually in the rules somewhere), if in another scenario, at a different club with a different sponsor:
If a sponsor could only pay a portion of the contracted amount, what would UEFA do once notified?
Would they, as I suspect, allow the owner to pay the remainder and double check he's not paid more than the contracted amount(or perhaps deciding on the FMV valuation of that deal for that period)? Deducting that in the break even calculations if necessary.
Or would they say: "Tough luck, take it up with your sponsor, you've failed break even requirements for this period"?
I find the latter a very unreasonable and unlikely answer personally.