I spend a lot of time reading this thread but don’t post very often. However today I’m giving it a go. I particularly want to address the viewpoint of some, which I think is flawed and that is the trust in the legitimacy of the case against City and why the case was launched.
I don’t have the legal or accounting background of some on here, although I do have experience in 2 areas, that I think can throw a little light on some matters. Firstly I have run a successful business, in a field that was highly competitive and self regulated. Secondly within that field I was an elected member of the board that regulated the industry in question and also a member of the panel that wrote the rule book . I won’t be naming the industry.
I know from personal experience how the rules and regulations can easily be influenced by individuals and individual businesses. I also know how the executive of an industry can be completely manipulated by the more powerful organisations it is supposed to represent and regulate. It’s so easy for me to see parallels with the way the PL is run and the industry I was involved in.
Admittedly the industry isn’t as big as football but it impacted on almost every person in the U.K.
I’ll give one small example of what I mean. A newcomer to the industry came up with a new way of doing business. This immediately threatened the business model of my company and others. To stop this newcomer in its tracks we changed the rules under which business could be done. We did this by seeking help from other board members we’d worked with in the past and collectively put pressure on the executive to act.
We also went to the government department associated with our industry and via our contacts there persuaded them that the newcomers business methods were in breach of government regulations, this was highly debatable but we’d worked with the people in charge for years and had close business relationships with them. We persuaded them the newcomers methods were going to be more trouble than they were worth and they acted accordingly.
Once we’d changed the rules and persuaded government to act we then attacked the integrity of the newcomer business with their clients and they soon gave up and went away.
The point I’m, probably badly, trying to make is that businesses protect their own interests and that in many fields, including I believe football, specific interests can easily be portrayed as “looking after the interests of all parties”. Also it’s so easy for big players to influence any self regulated industry.
Obviously there’s a lot more to the scenario above but I’m aware I’ve already rambled on.
PS I’m not proud of what we did but want people without experience of business to understand how the world can work.
