UEFA FFP investigation - CAS decision to be announced Monday, 13th July 9.30am BST

[SilverFox2]

I see comments made by Tebas, the self-confessed neo-nazi, have been reported widely in the British media with no challenge or context. The context is that Tebas has made these comments in the last 24 hours to deflect attention away from the La Liga match-fixing scandal which has just resumed in the Spanish courts. The scandal, which impacted on Champions League positions last year, involves at least 42 people who have been charged, includiing former United player Ander Herrerra.
Another piece of context is that La Liga clubs currently have combined debts of £2.5bn because of financial mismanagement so Tebas is not in any position to lecture anyone about finance. These crucial elements are, as usual, ignored by the English press but a quick check on Google shows they are being covered extensively across the rest of the world.
Why does a liberal newspaper like the Guardian report the offensive comments of a racist Nazi supporter (who has openly called for musliims to be deported from Spain) about the Arabic owners of City and PSG without any journalistic challenge or balance?

Perhaps just reporting what others say is the standard way to generate their income without actually accusing it themselves?

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

That depends on the country, and UK law is very unusual in it's placing the burden of proof on the defendant. Given Tebas is in Spain, talking in Spain to a Spanish newspaper, you're probably going to have to try and get him under Spanish law and IIRC last time this came up people worked out it's almost impossible to successfully sue someone for libel or defamation in Spain.

It has been pubished widely in the UK media. We can easily sue the newspapers here as the publishers as well as him. Tebas has damaged our reputation across the whole world and he is lying.

 

[Eds]

From the Goal article on tebas........

Both clubs have signed a plethora of marquee players, allowing them to challenge and often usurp established clubs at the top in their respective countries.


How many is a plethora?

Normally a plethora is a large or excessive amount of something. Not like Madrid or Barca have ever signed a plethora of marquee players. Don't recall Kompany, Sane, Sterling etc being marquee players when we signed them and everyone went Yaya who, thought David Silva was David Villa and didn't think Sergio would hack it...

 

[KS55]

Normally a plethora is a large or excessive amount of something. Not like Madrid or Barca have ever signed a plethora of marquee players. Don't recall Kompany, Sane, Sterling etc being marquee players when we signed them and everyone went Yaya who, thought David Silva was David Villa and didn't think Sergio would hack it...

You're right, we signed a plethora of useless unknowns and won the league 4 times. Genius.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

Perhaps just reporting what others say is the standard way to generate their income without actually accusing it themselves?

But where is the fairness and balance. The Guardian has made no attempt to balance the comments or put them into context. Why is there no response from City or PSG? The comments of Tebas do not exist in a vacuum. This sort of distorted reporting is why very few people in the UK have any trust in the mainstream media. Since when did the Guardian become an organisation which is happy to promote the views of a neo nazi totally unchallenged? What Tebas has said is defamatory and needs to be rebutted by the club. The UK media outlets who have repeated his libellous comments can also be sued. And if we sue them they will have to prove the comments made (that our finanacial figures are false) are true. Can you imagine what would happen if a leading figure accused for example a leading retailer like John Lewis of producing false statements. City do not do enough to protect our reputation.

 

[BlueAnorak]

Can't stop Slim Shady drifting through my head...
"Guess who's back, back again.This knobhead's back, tell a friend..."

 

[SilverFox2]

But where is the fairness and balance. The Guardian has made no attempt to balance the comments or put them into context. Why is there no response from City or PSG? The comments of Tebas do not exist in a vacuum. This sort of distorted reporting is why very few people in the UK have any trust in the mainstream media. Since when did the Guardian become an organisation which is happy to promote the views of a neo nazi totally unchallenged? What Tebas has said is defamatory and needs to be rebutted by the club. The UK media outlets who have repeated his libellous comments can also be sued. And if we sue them they will have to prove the comments made (that our finanacial figures are false) are true. Can you imagine what would happen if a leading figure accused for example a leading retailer like John Lewis of producing false statements. City do not do enough to protect our reputation.

I agree but for whatever reason our owner prefers to not get in a fight yet i don't think this is a weakness just our owners way.
As the late Joe Mercer once said to his players "Have a long memory not a short temper"
Regarding our media they long since stopped printing news preferring to print editorials of the news instead. In fact having got away with that some are now telling obvious incorrect, easily checked lies.

 

[BlueMoonz1977]

So whats the general thinking then at the minute regarding the decision.

One way or another it is going to go off big time isn't it.

On one hand we have the behind the scenes pressure from certain clubs forcing UEFA to punish us, and we have what is nothing less than corporate reputational damage being carried out against us and a smear campaign to make not just our owners but our club and CFG as a whole look bad in the eyes of any potential future investment, and have this message broadcast loud and wide in the UK media

Then we have our owners and club who have categorically denied any wrong doing and state they have provided evidence to back it all up

So, do we really think that UEFA will not tow the line of the clubs that are looking to not just stop us but to to actually bury us completely in the eyes of the world

.....or do we think that UEFA will make a statement saying that no wrong-doing has been found ! Which if were to happen I believe we should get UEFA to make an official statement on the matter that leaves no open questions left behind and then it is up to our club to take it any further to make public who was behind the smear campaign

UEFA are run in order to look after the cartel - nothing more, nothing less. UEFA will be sat around thinking do we go against the cartel clubs who want PSG and City out of the equation and risk the backlash from the cartel, or do we punish City regardless of what evidence they have provided, knowing that we (City) would then fight it through the courts which would surely ultimately end up with us having to air all the dirty tactics used

I just get the feeling that UEFA will not upset the apple cart of the cartel clubs and will punish us, getting the cartel clubs the end product they wanted as it would be splashed all over the media and they can then rub their hands saying job done

another worrying scenario, albeit a somewhat doomsday scenario, is that say we did take UEFA to court after being punished and it got to the point that FFP was shown to be a restriction on trade etc, this could destroy any reputation that UEFA has as an organisation to run football in europe - paving the way for the cartel to form a european league that they would have control over

I think UEFA are in a really difficult dilemma with all this

 

[eastmanc]

But where is the fairness and balance. The Guardian has made no attempt to balance the comments or put them into context. Why is there no response from City or PSG? The comments of Tebas do not exist in a vacuum. This sort of distorted reporting is why very few people in the UK have any trust in the mainstream media. Since when did the Guardian become an organisation which is happy to promote the views of a neo nazi totally unchallenged? What Tebas has said is defamatory and needs to be rebutted by the club. The UK media outlets who have repeated his libellous comments can also be sued. And if we sue them they will have to prove the comments made (that our finanacial figures are false) are true. Can you imagine what would happen if a leading figure accused for example a leading retailer like John Lewis of producing false statements. City do not do enough to protect our reputation.

Get the fat twat sued.

 

[laserblue]

That depends on the country, and UK law is very unusual in it's placing the burden of proof on the defendant. Given Tebas is in Spain, talking in Spain to a Spanish newspaper, you're probably going to have to try and get him under Spanish law and IIRC last time this came up people worked out it's almost impossible to successfully sue someone for libel or defamation in Spain.

Interesting. I didn't know that.