Thread has turned a bit silly.
Firstly we don’t know the outcome so the “when we’re cleared” posts are premature.
Second, imo we won’t be cleared of “everything”. There’ll be something, somewhere, most likely non-cooperation, we get “done” for.
If this happens, it’ll be impossible for City to come out with any kind of statement that puts all this to bed. The man in the street will always be able to say “cheats, you just made it too difficult for them to prove it by hiding all the evidence”.
My view, at this stage, is that’s been the aim all along. A long, drawn out, expensive character assassination and a powerful way of asterixing the club’s achievements.
You're most likely right, we are all prisoners of guesswork, but there are two aspects to a long drawn out process.
The first is, as you pointed out, a long drawn out process is a punishment.
But the second, which rarely gets mentioned, is no matter how punishing and damaging a long drawn out process is, it's nothing compared to a swift bang to rights. UEFA sought a swift bang to rights in the absence of evidence, a "never mind a trial let's get to the sentence" approach and we called their bluff at CAS.
Unlike UEFA, the Premier League, let's not forget after a four year investigation of their own, went straight to process. Stefan might well say that's because the charges are so complex and difficult to prove, and he's right, but what it also tells you is the Premier league does not have a smoking gun, it doesn't have a damning whistle blower, it doesn't have the Sheikh's finger prints on oodles of cash, they don't have their gotcha moment, a.....
Coz if they did have just one more thing, we wouldn't be talking about process as punishment stretched over many years, we'd be talking about "the" punishment, we'd not be playing Salford in the FA Cup, we'd be playing them in the league.
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