I've never been one for conspiracy theories, but it's clear that there's a concerted attempt from powerful sources in football, abetted by compliant allies in the media, to saw City off at the knees. No coincidence that it comes when we've reached a point at which, on and off the field, we've created a set-up giving us a decent opportunity to be the most successful club in England over an extended period.
No one, as far as I've seen, has so far looked at what the accusations against us mean. The fundamental allegation which UEFA are now investigating is essentially that MCFC concealed shareholder funding from its auditor under the guise of bogus sponsorship contracts and then presented the auditor's opinions to UEFA with a view to avoiding or mitigating punishment for a breach financial regulations. When they say we're 'cheats', that's what they're saying we've done.
I'm going to get a bit legal here. Apologies for that, but I can't avoid it. There's an offence under section 17 of the Theft Act under which it's a criminal offence punishable by up to seven years' imprisonment if "a person dishonestly, with a view to gain for himself or another … makes use of any account, or any such record or document as aforesaid, which to his knowledge is or may be misleading, false or deceptive in a material particular": https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/60/section/17. Further, section 18 of the same Act clarifies that "offence committed by a body corporate under section 17 of this Act is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of that offence, and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly": https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/60/section/18.
To my reading, that quite clearly would cover MCFC knowingly providing false documents to UEFA to avoid a fine or get a lesser one. So, in other words, the corollary of the allegation made against us by Der Spiegel and widely repeated over several months throughout the UK media is that the City directors who dealt with UEFA have committed a serious dishonesty-based criminal offence for which the punishment can be a lengthy term in jail.
Let's look at who they're accusing of that. MCFC's directors include Simon Pearce and Khaldoon, both key figures in government circles in the UAE. But more than that, the offence applies to any "other similar officer of the body corporate". To my mind, though I can't find case law on the point, this is likely to include what under UK company law is called a "shadow director". And this makes it even more interesting.
A shadow director, in relation to a company, is "a person in accordance with whose directions or instructions the directors of the company are accustomed to act". That will include Mansour - and, if our detractors are correct that Mansour is merely a front for the emirate of Abu Dhabi, it could go higher than that. And it seems to me highly likely that, given the reputational issues involved, that someone very senior in Abu Dhabi will have been involved in giving MCFC's directors a steer with respect to our FFP issues.
So will they have twigged back in Abu Dhabi that senior government figures and potentially even one or more members of the ruling family are being labelled criminal fraudsters by that august institution, the British press, egged on by our footballing enemies? Bet your fucking life they will. And that makes it personal.
Which gives rise to the question of how they'll react. Now, we've noted - to the frustration of many on here, including me - that our owner and stakeholders seem to dictate a rather nicey-nicey approach as a preference, even in situations where many fans might prefer us to show a bit more aggression. I don't know anything about Emirati business and culture so stand to be corrected by anyone who does, but I'm led to believe that they can, in contrast to their preferred mode of operation, they can be utterly ruthless when they feel they've been provoked.
In my opinion, that's where we are now. I don't, unlike one post I saw this morning, worry that our owners and stakeholders will lose heart. In my opinion, the gloves will come off. I'm not saying that we'll emerge unscathed, and, with the powerful forces ranged against MCFC, there's scope for us to suffer tremendous damage. But I doubt our owners/stakeholders will take this lying down.
I don't know how it will pan out, but I think it could get nasty. And I'd bet heavily that if, in the end, we do go down, we'll take others down with us.
Excellent post. Very in-depth for Saturday morning.
But yes, I can confirm the Emirati business is ruthless. Most, I’m talking nearly all the leading figures have spent at least part of their education in the U.S. Learning how to cut opposition off at their knees.
It don’t think it will get anywhere near the stages required for that level of muscle flexing. I think UEFA are going through the motions as they’d look so weak if they did nothing. I expect words of caution, a murky unclear explanation that nothing can be proven and we’re clear for now, but we will continue to monitor future deals.