That’s fine, it’s all a game of opinions at the end of the day.
Ultimately though, the club say they have ‘irrefutable evidence’ that the charges are bollocks. To see this evidence is to kill the case stone dead, there is that little ambiguity.
That then only leaves two scenarios.
1. The club have this evidence, have decided under legal advice to not engage with the investigation (very likely to avoid falling foul of a fishing expedition) and accept non-compliance charges that will result in a hefty fine
2. The club have provided all of this evidence, the PL and some of the UKs top legal minds, people who pick and choose their cases, have seen this evidence and still plowed ahead in a case of such corporate negligence it makes Gerald Rayner look a visionary, and thrown in non-compliance charges for a laugh also.
My point was a simple one - a poster said if City are found not guilty of all charges they should ‘sue everyone’, but unless it’s a case of scenario 2 above, it’s simply not possible, and if it’s scenario 2 at the end of the day, the PL executives and KC’s who saw ‘irrefutable evidence’ and pushed on would have being sued way down their list of concerns.
Also fine, but whilst it would be absolutely hilarious if all the PL have is the UEFA case that they want to retry, it stretches extremely thin the concept of plausibility that some of the UKs top KCs would be willing to put their reputations and their chambers’ reputations on the line to try that case again, especially with the weightiest allegations having already been found unsubstantiated by CAS. These guys earn millions of pounds a year and pick and choose their cases, they’re not taking this case for money or because they’re secretly Arsenal/Liverpool/United fans.
In that scenario, any KC worth their salt would be advising the club to ‘take a pinch’ if it were offered as some of the Walter Mittys would have you believe the PL have been desperate for. It’s not just SM who can make decisions anymore either, there are important shareholders with a lot of money on the line, it would be negligence of the highest order to refuse a settlement if offered no matter how confident you are.
If in 18 months time the ruling comes out and it turns out the PL had nothing more than the UEFA case, ran with it anywhere and got torn apart at the tribunal, I’ll be on here celebrating with you, trying to avoid a double hernia from laughing so hard, but for the reasons above, I just don’t see any plausible scenario that the PL and KCs would be that reckless, even with the pressure other clubs and an incoming independent regulator no doubt put them under.
