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

[Akpowell]

Cilla and the Pacemakers, featuring Ken Dodd

Hahahahah

 

[The Colonel]

Yes, but who was the other band?

Jimmy Tarbuck and the Broncos

 

[dickie davies]

And teams that are more than £10m in debt
should not be allowed to sign players

Explain "debt"?
Do you mean spending money you don't physically have in the bank?

 

[Shirley]

Completely agree on this. The rules should be relaxed so owners can spend as much as they like to make their teams successful.

If an owner is a nation state with untold wealth which no other club in the league can compete with, would you still agree?
There has to be ffp but not in the current form EUFA are stitching City up with.

 

[BillyShears]

If an owner is a nation state with untold wealth which no other club in the league can compete with, would you still agree?
There has to be ffp but not in the current form EUFA are stitching City up with.

This notion that you can be so rich nobody can compete with you is in footballing terms, not really true at all. With or without FFP. You can only have 25 players in a squad, and you can only field XI. You might buy 11 of the most expensive players in the world, you might have the highest wage bill in the league as well, but it won't guarantee you success. So when people talk about it being unfair that owner X is this rich or owner Y is that rich, it's actually nonsense.

The truth of the matter is that whether it's FSG or Kroenke or the Glazers, they can all use their own wealth and match City pound for pound in our transfer spending. Regardless of how 'rich' Mansour is reported to be.

 

[chesterbells]

This notion that you can be so rich nobody can compete with you is in footballing terms, not really true at all. With or without FFP. You can only have 25 players in a squad, and you can only field XI. You might buy 11 of the most expensive players in the world, you might have the highest wage bill in the league as well, but it won't guarantee you success. So when people talk about it being unfair that owner X is this rich or owner Y is that rich, it's actually nonsense.

The truth of the matter is that whether it's FSG or Kroenke or the Glazers, they can all use their own wealth and match City pound for pound in our transfer spending. Regardless of how 'rich' Mansour is reported to be.

Exactly mate. And this ‘untold wealth’ line is arbitrary at best; some companies and individuals have bigger wealth than some nation states. When you start ‘drawing lines’ like that, where do you stop? After what level of ‘wealth’ does it start becoming unfair?

 

[M18CTID]

At face value you're 100% correct. But that's all assuming this is just about UEFA wanting to penalise City over FFP, with FFP being treated solely as a means of financial control with no ulterior motives.

I can only speculate but I feel this is a last chance saloon for all the clubs working against City, and with all the internal politics with UEFA at the centre (almost like the PL is with the Newcastle takeover) a City success here could cause UEFA a host of trouble from other clubs out there.

Yeah, that certainly could be a factor but if CAS rule in our favour UEFA can basically say they did everything they could in trying to punish us.

 

[M18CTID]

I think what they have to lose is that if City win then we may very well then start suing for damages which could be huge.

If it gets to that then UEFA will be desperate to negotiate with us. I don’t think City will want to take down the whole of European football if it can be avoided and if we can get guarantees on some kind of reform within UEFA we might be happy with that. Main thing for us is winning the CAS case I think

 

[eastmanc]

If an owner is a nation state with untold wealth which no other club in the league can compete with, would you still agree?
There has to be ffp but not in the current form EUFA are stitching City up with.

That is the point FFP is stitching City up because that is what it is designed to do. FFP hasn’t stopped any club from going out of business, see Bury fc, but it has stopped certain clubs being able to compete. City were lucky because we just crashed their little party just in time now they want us out.

 

[Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese]

Exactly mate. And this ‘untold wealth’ line is arbitrary at best; some companies and individuals have bigger wealth than some nation states. When you start ‘drawing lines’ like that, where do you stop? After what level of ‘wealth’ does it start becoming unfair?

It seems the level it becomes unfair is at the point where it threatens the 'top four' in this country and the Spanish /German stranglehold on European football.