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

[Parisian]

Unless, of course, fair value is being determined by Leterme and the club's president is the chairman of a major sponsor of UEFA.

Yeah. He decided to lower by 37% the contracts which has forced his team to sell all his bench and buy finished players on free (Alves, Buffon).

Wonder if UEFA had forced City to devaluate the contracts by 37% and sell some bench players, you would feel like Sheik Mansour is ruling the game.

 

[Rammy Blue]

Get an injunction in which court?

Kangaroo?

 

[Parisian]

Isn’t the £8m figure the one that allegedly comes from Etihad direct, the rest allegedly from ADUG?

Yeah (ADUG or your UAE EC). But your accounts were validated with those values in 2014 and you were fine. So, if they consider you have breached the break even rule, they must have further devalued your contract and used those numbers in the email.

 

[Shaelumstash]

Couple of things. I don't believe CAS will be interested in the accounting side of things. All they'll be looking at is whether UEFA correctly followed its own procedures, whether we had a fair crack of the whip and, they did, whether our punishment was reasonable.

Second, I'd imagine City wouldn't bring that up as it was a leaked document, so they could hardly complain about hacked and leaked documents being used to prosecute them but use one in their defence. Its not their document to use anyway.

Sorry, I wasn't suggesting City used a leaked document. Rather, if they provided documented proof that ADEC funded the Etihad sponsorship, would that prejudice ADEC's case with the US airlines?

If the case is going to be solely about process, do you think UEFA leaking to the press is enough of an abuse of process in itself for us to win the case?

 

[Nicholas van Whatsisface]

Have a read of this regarding Yves Leterme and the PSG case back in 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/sports/psg-uefa-ffp.html

Seems Yves Leterme had the interests of Qatar at heart allowing PSG to get off the hook. Interesting that Bein Sports had at the time secured a multi-million dollar deal to become a UEFA partner

I think that this along with other information could effectively show UEFA for what they are if we decide to go after them

Thanks for posting mate - makes for a very interesting read!

Considering that article, and the picture it paints of Leterme, alongside the clear conflict of interest that exists in the central roles played by very recent CEOs of two of our direct competitors, firstly in Rick Parry sitting on the investigatory panel which reviewed our case and recommended the current sanctions, and secondly in David Gill - also former vice-chairman of the G14 before it was 'officially disbanded', lest we forget - sitting on the executive committee at UEFA who ratified these sanctions - it's baffling people like Liew and Conn seem so outraged that we are now biting back at UEFA through this process.

This was an act of aggression by people with self-evidently vested interests in disabling our capacity to compete, and ensuring the top table remains closed to competition - twisting the purpose of FFP from one of limiting owners loading debt onto their clubs (as it was originally intended) to in the end acting solely to limit any owner from investing their own money risk free to grow their business - as is common practice in any industry across the world.

Why should we be respectful of these people, whose clear objective is to protect the interests of the stakeholders they support (be they direct competitors like United, Liverpool and the G14 cartel in the case of Gill and Parry, or geopolitical competitors like Qatar in the case of Leterme).

They're standing up for their interests - and we're now standing up for ours. Because if we don't - there isn't a hope in hell of expecting any of that miserable bunch to take our perspective into account before passing judgement!

Their dealings with us throughout the FFP process have been duplicitous and disrespectful - is it any wonder we have started to reciprocate in kind? Who can blame us?

Again - a bit of balance in viewing our dealings with UEFA in any context more complex than the reductive, simplistic 'City are refusing to respect the upstanding governing body of their sport' line trotted out by Liew, Conn and their ilk would be an interesting piece for a proper journalist to explore in more detail.

Little danger of seeing that any time soon given the scruples of our press!

 

[mrbelfry]

UEFA's statement refers to us as overstating sponsorship revenue is it possible we are getting our knickers in a twist with ADEC, ADUG, Etihad, related parties etc? That statement doesn't imply objections to how the money was sourced but rather how much there actually was.

Could it be as simple as UEFA reading the Etihad pay £8m email and nothing the discrepancy between that and what appears in our accounts/ffp statement? I can't remember where I read that we had some contracts not signed when we showed them the investigators - could it be an Etihad contract? Combine the £8m email with an unsigned contract but then an item on the calcs showing £60m from Etihad (or whatever the figure is) can you get to an accusation of "overstating sponsorship revenue"?

OR can it refer to the "we can do what we want" email chain that referenced claiming sponsorship money for beating Wigan in the FA Cup?

 

[City Raider]

My take is that UEFA haven't really wanted to pursue this which is why they hoped we would take the small 'pinch'.
When we didn't, the 'elite' G14 continued to apply pressure for UEFA to act. UEFA have announced the unprecedented 2 year ban in the hope we accept a compromise of a 1 year ban. Under these circumstances I think it is quite possible that UEFA will not have followed procedures because they didn't expect (or want) to be in this position.

If we don't concede (and I don't think we will) and if we win the appeal then this will severely damage UEFA's integrity (funny I know) and their finances. At this point the G14 will wrestle power away from a weak UEFA and we will be in a completely different war.

Whatever way I look at it, the G14 cannot lose.

Tend to agree. Whatever way I look at it, ends with UEFA in a vulnerable position. We’ve shown our intent and regardless of CAS outcome we’ll go after FFP. Just can’t see that standing up to any objective scrutiny.

So what comes next? These clubs obviously don’t want us at the table. There has to be some diplomacy as well as legal action.

 

[razman]

Ahh well, what else is left to investigate

 

[blueinsa]

Thanks for posting mate - makes for a very interesting read!

Considering that article, and the picture it paints of Leterme, alongside the clear conflict of interest that exists in the central roles played by very recent CEOs of two of our direct competitors, firstly in Rick Parry sitting on the investigatory panel which reviewed our case and recommended the current sanctions, and secondly in David Gill - also former vice-chairman of the G14 before it was 'officially disbanded', lest we forget - sitting on the executive committee at UEFA who ratified these sanctions - it's baffling people like Liew and Conn seem so outraged that we are now biting back at UEFA through this process.

This was an act of aggression by people with self-evidently vested interests in disabling our capacity to compete, and ensuring the top table remains closed to competition - twisting the purpose of FFP from one of limiting owners loading debt onto their clubs (as it was originally intended) to in the end acting solely to limit any owner from investing their own money risk free to grow their business - as is common practice in any industry across the world.

Why should we be respectful of these people, whose clear objective is to protect the interests of the stakeholders they support (be they direct competitors like United, Liverpool and the G14 cartel in the case of Gill and Parry, or geopolitical competitors like Qatar in the case of Leterme).

They're standing up for their interests - and we're now standing up for ours. Because if we don't - there isn't a hope in hell of expecting any of that miserable bunch to take our perspective into account before passing judgement!

Their dealings with us throughout the FFP process have been duplicitous and disrespectful - is it any wonder we have started to reciprocate in kind? Who can blame us?

Again - a bit of balance in viewing our dealings with UEFA in any context more complex than the reductive, simplistic 'City are refusing to respect the upstanding governing body of their sport' line trotted out by Liew, Conn and their ilk would be an interesting piece for a proper journalist to explore in more detail.

Little danger of seeing that any time soon given the scruples of our press!

Another excellent post from you on this subject.

 

[Zin 'messiah' Zimmer]

Ahh well, what else is left to investigate

This has already been adjudicated on, can’t be subject to further sanctions if they’ve signed off on them!