I thought related party funding was allowed as long as deemed fair value?
So what exactly is the issue if the money was coming from Sheikh Mansour if the sponsorship was deemed fair value anyway?
Always been my point. From an accounting point of view I don't see how any of this affects the true and fair view given by the accounts at all.
Firstly, most of the allegations aren't material and so fall outside the true and fair determination, even ignoring time limitation.
Secondly, the only material allegation, Etihad, is the main sponsor for ground, shirt and campus. These are all unique sponsorships that every club has, or could have. It's not like Joe Bloggs giving money to someone to buy a shitload of widgets to artificially inflate his revenue. As long as the sponsorship is at fair value, the accounts wouldn't show a "truer" and "fairer" view to stakeholders of the company by leaving the revenue out. The accounts would become, effectively, meaningless for evaluation purposes. They would be less fair and less true and couldn't be compared to other clubs' accounts in any meaningful way. We can discuss note disclosures, but the actual financial statements themselves would be meaningless.
I get that the allegations do effectively represent fraud and I know lawyers wet themselves at the thought of fraud and incorrect accounts, but as an accountant I have always had trouble buying it in this case. And I mean even if Mansour turned up outside Etihad's treasury department with his Maserati full of cash.
You could argue, possibly, that it may not have been possible to find sponsors at the beginning who were willing to pay the amounts that Etihad did. But then I would point to the PL's own definition of fair market value, which is " the amount for which (.....) a service [could be] provided between knowledgable, willing parties engaging in an arm's length transaction in normal market conditions". Unless they are challenging fair market value on that basis (and I doubt very much they are), I just don't get it.
Mind you, that's probably why accountants end up in jail and lawyers end up making money .....