PL charge City for alleged breaches of financial rules

[Cobwebcat]

All this talk of Everton's appeal is confusing me.

I had thought that for months we have been told that, unlike with UEFA/CAS, the PL process does not accommodate any right of appeal

Obviously there is - who are Everton appealing to?

How would that affect us?

They’ve appealed the PL decision in the same way we have so we are both at the same stage. There are no appeals after that under normal circumstances.

 

[decmancity]

Based of some of the weird sponsorship deals we've had from companies that are clearly owned by City, I'm finding it hard not to believe we won't be charged with something. I can't remember the betting company we were sponsored by but the picture of the CEO was just some stock image from google ha, definitely some dodgy stuff going on

What a load of nonsense. The company I work for has no presence online and the billionaire CEO is nowhere to be found on the web.

If you don't want to be public, you don't have to be.

 

[Rory Bluelow]

I spent a chunk of my weekend arguing with someone who claimed to be trained in law that the CAS judgement was actually quite clear that City had broken multiple FFP rules if you just knew how to read between the lines. A little bit of education is a dangerous thing.

At best, probably done a contact law module as part of a professional or business studies qualification !

 

[Dribble]

That's not correct. Clubs have to apply for their UEFA licence, and there are specific rules in the PL Handbook referring to this. This won't have affected Everton in recent seasons.

There is a specific PL rule that says clubs must comply with UEFA FFP rules, and we have been charged with five instances of breaking that PL rule. This is ironic, because we haven't been proven to have broken their rules (CAS), yet the club that has broken UEFA FFP (United) had not been charged by the PL. The PL has said it is investigating Chelsea though.

Do clubs apply directly to UEFA for their licence, or through the PL?

I recall a sports lawyer talking about this some time ago, & he explained it's the associations who make up UEFA, not individual clubs, hence it's the PL who issues City our UEFA licence, not us applying to UEFA...

The clubs themselves formed their own powerful lobby called the ECA which is dominated by the G/14 elite European Football Clubs.

That's my understanding of it, but I'm happy to be corrected.



https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/protecting-the-game/club-licensing/

 

[Rory Bluelow]

Interesting title to one of his books; "Challenging Sports Governing Bodies". He should be on our side. I'd read it, but I don't have £104 to buy the Kindle version.

Think I’ll wait for the film to come out !

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

I disagree pal. If the charges are made out I’m struggling to see how it’s anything other than fraud. That’s what makes these charges especially ridiculous.

The only one where fraud could possibly be inferred is if we knowingly overstated sponsorships. There are plenty of instances where a company interprets an accounting standard, or taxation clause, in one way, which can lead to it understating revenue or profits, or underpaying tax. But these can be challenged and are often corrected via restated accounts or a settlement with HMRC.

Surely there has to be evidence of intent if fraud is suspected, as opposed to an interpretation. Setting up a scheme whereby we moved image rights to another company IN PLAIN VIEW (as Fordham is listed under the Manchester City Football Club listing on the Companies House website) cannot reasonably be considered fraudulent.

 

[decmancity]

My thoughts are on this are very simple. I just dont see how the prem are going to come out of this victorious. They are accusing several layers here of fraud and deceit, it just doesn't add up.

Silverlake, PWC, City, CFG, Khaldoon, Sheikh Mansour and everyone in between are all complicit in covering up fraud on the scale the premier league are accusing of us. I just don't buy it.

There is no coincidence this list of charges was released the day before the Gov was about to release its report into advocating for an independent regulatory body in the prem.

The charge list was full of mistakes and edited several times, they had their pals in the media parroting on all platforms and its quickly gripped thousands of no nothing fans of other clubs who are seemingly believing the premier league are completely correct with this but will at the same time call the premier league every name under the sun if a decision goes against them and accuse them of VAR corruption and everything else.

 

[Oldham Exile]

They’ve appealed the PL decision in the same way we have so we are both at the same stage. There are no appeals after that under normal circumstances.

Thanks - perhaps that should have been obvious - but I am still a little confused

I thought that they had been charged - they admitted guilt - the case was then referred to the panel (as ours is currently being) and that the PL wanted a 12 point penalty and the panel have given a 10 point penalty

So I thought that they were at 'the next stage' and therefore there should be no further appeal

In my defence - I have been away golfing so only been reading snippets

 

[Jam Tomorrow]

Apparently Everton ‘fans’ have a fighting fund set up that stands at £30,000, on Sunday huge demonstration, lots of banners etc

open season on City would be my best guess, lots of 115 and ‘we have one charge what about City and 115’ etc etc etc which is exactly what the EPL want, City name and shamed even though we haven’t been found guilty of anything. Also wonder where the money is coming from….

 

[Dribble]

All this talk of Everton's appeal is confusing me.

I had thought that for months we have been told that, unlike with UEFA/CAS, the PL process does not accommodate any right of appeal

Obviously there is - who are Everton appealing to?

How would that affect us?

The right of appeal is to an internal independent panel that the PL selects from it's 6-person appeals board.

Where they say there's no right of appeal is to the Law Courts, UNLESS you have a strong case about the PL's tribunal process.

What their rules state is you can't appeal a PL decision if you disagree with it, only the process used to reach that decision.

That's my understanding of the situation, so hopefully that makes sense.