PL charge City for alleged breaches of financial rules

[JewelZee]

Of course not. That’s not what I was saying at all

Well someone is full of shit, either us or the Prem. There's really no middle ground in this one.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

Well weve been through this already, did Uefa not realises there case was time barred? Everyone on here knew that but there lawyers didnt?

UEFA pressed ahead with no evidence according to the CAS panel. Incredible but true.

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

At the risk of outing myself as thick as fuck, I struggle with the notion that preposterous charges have been brought by the EPL who must have sought the advice of competent lawyers before they did so. Genuine question to you - do you believe the EPL lawyers are thick as fuck also, or is it the case that the charges were issued by the EPL against legal advice?
For what it’s worth I trust Khaldoon‘s irrefutable evidence statement but as I say it seems virtually unthinkable that any responsible organisation would issue proceedings of such magnitude knowing such proceedings were doomed to fail

I think the emails look bad (though as we saw at CAS, things looking bad doesn't always mean they are bad). I think members of the league, who likely didn't read every word of the CAS statement, used press reporting, Der Spiegel framing, and a sense that UEFA stumbled at CAS, have put immense pressure on the league. I think the league want to put it all behind them one way or another and have decided to do everything to put it to bed (which I suspect they regret now). And I think City have not cooperated with investigations which might have stopped it getting this far. It's a perfect storm.

 

[Cityfan1977]

UEFA pressed ahead with no evidence according to the CAS panel. Incredible but true.

yes and that is not talked about enough , it is crusial in both these cases.
Why did UEFA charge City with completely lost case. There lawers must have known

 

[halfcenturyup]

At the risk of outing myself as thick as fuck, I struggle with the notion that preposterous charges have been brought by the EPL who must have sought the advice of competent lawyers before they did so. Genuine question to you - do you believe the EPL lawyers are thick as fuck also, or is it the case that the charges were issued by the EPL against legal advice?
For what it’s worth I trust Khaldoon‘s irrefutable evidence statement but as I say it seems virtually unthinkable that any responsible organisation would issue proceedings of such magnitude knowing such proceedings were doomed to fail

I still think the PL proceeded because the club put them in a no-win situation: the club didn't provide the evidence to the investigation that the whole world knows exists (because it was largely presented at CAS) because the PL didn't have the right to demand it - the external information from Mancini, Toure, ADUG Etihad, Etisalat and the rest.

So what could the PL do? Drop the case and set a terrible precedent, or continue with the case and suffer (hopefully) a terrible loss.

Choose the form of the Destructor!

Brilliantly done by the club.

 

[halfcenturyup]

Well weve been through this already, did Uefa not realises there case was time barred? Everyone on here knew that but there lawyers didnt?

Not everything was time-barred and there was some dispute over the wording which determines when the time limitation began.

It was found that there was no evidence to support the most important claim (that the Etihad sponsorship was mostly funded by ADUG).

 

[halfcenturyup]

Lawyers aren't stupid, but at the same time they will be making a fortune in fees.

Presuming this echoes the Uefa case, would you think Uefa listened to their lawyers, who like EPLs lawyers, would have laid out their chances of winning. Does the EPL lose less face with the instigating clubs & hopefully stop the independent regulator by losing at an Independent Commision

Probably the PL loses less face with the instigating clubs, but it was a huge mistake to announce the referral of so many breaches and in a way that makes claims of effective fraud absolutely inevitable. So now the PL is guaranteed to lose face in the court of public opinion as i) no-one understands another inevitability - why it's taking so long and ii) everyone is going to be distraught when the thinking that "the number of allegations means it's a slam dunk for the PL" is inevitably blown out of the water.

Watch the "instigating clubs" inevitably run for cover next year and leave Masters high and dry.

 

[halfcenturyup]

Ok apologies if this has been answered a million times, but what evidence were the PL using to have made the 100+ allegations in the first place? They couldn't have been working with much more than the emails, right?

Seems very bold on their part


(sorry if I'm completely wrong here)

They will have started with the leaked emails but it's entirely possible they could have found something else in their four year investigation: some other emails adding some further discussion, maybe, or some accounting entries that can be interpreted one way or another.

A difference between the UEFA case and the PL case is that the PL have had more time and better access to information, I think.

PS: Sorry for the string of posts. I just woke up and can't resist .....

 

[Bez]

We may never find this out. Perhaps it will appear in a future biography or memoir, but it would be very interesting to know the sequence of events leading up to the PL announcing the charges against City. Who was actually involved? Who did Richard Masters speak to beforehand? What phone calls did he make? What emails were sent? What was the advice from their lawyers? Were emotions running high? Who was putting pressure on the PL? Etc etc. We can only speculate as to what drove the decision for the PL to issue the statement full of errors which later had to be corrected. Remember, City said they were surprised by the statement. It's very likely that there was high emotion at the PL at the time and if that was the case, where there is high emotion, there is a much greater risk of poor decision making. We've all made decisions in our lives when full of emotion and normally with hindsight we regret them. I wonder if the PL are now thinking that they should have exercised more caution. Only time will tell.

 

[KS55]

At the risk of outing myself as thick as fuck, I struggle with the notion that preposterous charges have been brought by the EPL who must have sought the advice of competent lawyers before they did so. Genuine question to you - do you believe the EPL lawyers are thick as fuck also, or is it the case that the charges were issued by the EPL against legal advice?
For what it’s worth I trust Khaldoon‘s irrefutable evidence statement but as I say it seems virtually unthinkable that any responsible organisation would issue proceedings of such magnitude knowing such proceedings were doomed to fail

Against that, you have to rationalise the PL bringing some charges that CAS stated there was no evidence for, and for which there are sworn statements on oath of denial. A smoking gun of new evidence would be the only explanation and that would have leaked by now. Where is it?