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

[HalfwayUpTheKippax]

Launched from the main stand? If I remember correctly.

I was incensed at the referee (as usual!) like everyone else. I didn't see the ie incident from halfway up the kippax but read about it that evening in the pink. I was delighted. Full marks to the blue that launched it!

 

[SilverFox2]

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.

You are right of couse but during the banking crisis I don't think Natwest or Halifav complained when our owner invested in Barclays.
Also when our owner invested in Ancoats property near Etihad, again seemingly no foul called?
This is what he does with AD money like RSA did with Bush in Texas where the only complainant was a certain Mr Bin Laden a family member.

Seems to me football is the only sector that sees this as unfair.

 

[dickie davies]

Yeah, what's wrong with that

Ok. We now owe Leicester £40m
Are we allowed to buy any more players, or do we have to wait 4 years until we owe Leicester less than £10m?

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

I think we're being far too sympathetic to FFP even as it exists now. Has Sheikh Mansour shown the slightest sign of wanting to "walk away" in the last twelve years? Has anyone claimed that City's financial stability is actually in any kind of danger? Are we in the same rude good health as Manchester United or Chelsea when our liabilities and assets are taken into account?

I would also add that the whole point of this case is to show that FFP made it impossible for any club to crash through the ceiling imposed by UEFA and its magic circle clubs! UEFA's message is surely that in their eyes even an owner like Sheikh Mansour had to inflate deals and break the rules to manage it. And they'll have two goes at him for it if they can get away with it.

Let's turn our attention to the good clubs, those who've shown us that FFP works. Better forget Leicester for a start - they broke FL FFP to pieces to get into the PL. So, Southampton, Brighton and Watford for a start. Invested in infrastructure as FFP allows. Unfortunately long before FFP, so its their owners who take the credit there. Spent within their means. Yes. But again long before FFP demanded it. Southampton picked clean by ... who is it again. And what do they have in common? Well look at the PL table? Which end do they inhabit most of the time? But there are other good clubs. There's MU, always break even. Chelsea. Miraculously began to break even when FFP came into effect. Spurs. Great example of investing in infrastructure and being prudent on transfers and wages. The problem? They've all risen to their present status as a result of spending way beyond their means, before UEFA gave a tinker's cuss - and now their "finacial stability" looks as wobbly as possible because they're massively in debt. Thank God UEFA insists on a time limit for them to pay off their debts - just as "new" owners have a time limit to meet the break even rule after acually being allowed to invest.

So, well said that man who argued that FFP makes it more difficult for clubs. Some clubs are stable without any aid from FFP, some are stable DESPITE FFP and some are UNSTABLE because FFP thinks its better for them. "We luuurv debt."

 

[hihosilva]

This is a good watch.

 

[Jazzman]

I suspect he’s probably German based on his location.

I am actually from Denmark, but I live in Germany. English is not my first language ;-)

 

[eastlandsblue]

And the real problem is the Glazers have used someone else's money to enrich themselves. For me, that shows up the weakness of UEFA's regulatory regime. They subjected United to a degree of existential risk that should have been unacceptable.

When you look at many of the businesses going into administration, they're often owned not by people who genuinely care about the actual business or its customers, but by private equity, which only cares about getting back its money after loading the business with debt. If football club owners want to risk money, then it should be their own they risk.

Sky TV should be thanking us every day, not the opposite. Had it not been for Mansour and his money. The prem would without doubt, be one of the weakest leagues in the world. The so called big 4 would have just carried on dominating english football for years without spending anywhere near what they would have done over the past ten years. The rags might even have been debt free by now.

 

[Mikeegrini]

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.

This is, for me, the only context in which the word " ambition " should be used regarding a football club. How often do you hear commentators jabber on about " the ambition of a football club " football clubs aren't ambitious the owners can be though most aren't. Very happy to say ours is. This is were our problems with so called FFP started.

 

[richards30]

It’s ironic that one guy who will be behind us getting charged is that smarmy piece of shit who runs PSG!! Corrupt as fuck and needs twatted!

 

[whp.blue]

How come it’s not obvious to the media especially people like Simon Jordan that our accounts trump the emails and that Etihad are clearly paying more than the 8 million stated in the emails

Tunnel vision

They believe it because they want it to be true it plays to their views on a successful City.