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

[KS55]

G14, cartel blah blah. IMO (tin hat on), we need to give this stuff up - if we lose the club have screwed up. Let's be clear and honest, we would act exactly the same as the competition if, lets say, we win at CAS (or even if we don't) and in 5 years Newcastle have started to threaten the status quo. It's a competitive sport - people lobby as it leads to relative gains.

Yes, but.......
Soriano said the case was political.
The red teams meet regularly in Mcr and NY. Not dicussing the price of fish.
Several odd deals with Uefa by G14 teams: PSG, Liverpool (oh, that expenditure was by a previous owner So it doesn't count).
Uefa have done the bidding of G14 on the format of the CL, Leaving debt out of ffp, TV money formula ("it's ridiculous that man city got the biggest pay out". Real spokesman)
G14 captured major positions at uefa, three quarters of ECA exec seats, all voting for each other like the euro song contest.
Maybe not conspiracy, but 'cooperation' of an unhealthy nature. Lobbying is all very well, but uefa just give in to them every time. And should they be lobbying the 'independent' IC and AC?
Adam Smith said that, the moment you interfere with free markets, you get clandestine meetings in smoke filled back rooms, as big players put the fix in.
The fix is in.

 

[chaddblue]

If the club are notified of the decision before or at the draw on Friday and it’s gone badly (I’m in the ‘we’ll win’ camp btw) what’s the chances we withdraw from the competition?

It would be a protest, generating enormous publicity against what the club would consider to be a huge miscarriage of justice; it would make the competition a farce; And let’s face it if it happens there’s zero chance we’d be allowed to win it

There’s probably loads of legal and financial reasons why this would never happen but in a way I’d love the club to do it if the worst was to happen

 

[City_Sean]

Big difference between clubs lobbying governing bodies for changes so as to help cement a place at the top table (unpalatable but not unlawful), and clubs and individuals ganging up and making false accusations against other clubs with little to no supporting evidence to back it up. While I could see our club doing the former, I hope to fuck we never do the latter. That’s unlawful and can cause untold reputational damage. If City win this, then a firm message needs to go out to those various individuals and clubs, starting with that racist prick Tebas.

If City felt that FFP was bollocks then the club should have challenged it when it was introduced. They didn't, they've agreed to Uefa's rules so it's absurd now that people are still trotting the line of "it's unfair".

This whole blaming other clubs is a nonsense. It's a competitive, multi billion industry where finishing fourth is a guaranteed £100m with CL qualification. The idea that other clubs are going to sit idly by and want City to get off freely if we have broken rules is a nonsense.

 

[Blue Smarties]

If the club are notified of the decision before or at the draw on Friday and it’s gone badly (I’m in the ‘we’ll win’ camp btw) what’s the chances we withdraw from the competition?

It would be a protest, generating enormous publicity against what the club would consider to be a huge miscarriage of justice; it would make the competition a farce; And let’s face it if it happens there’s zero chance we’d be allowed to win it

There’s probably loads of legal and financial reasons why this would never happen but in a way I’d love the club to do it if the worst was to happen

Zero. It would cost us millions and cause untold damage. You're seeing it from a fans perspective mate, and that's fair enough, but you need to see it as a business.

 

[slbsn]

This is where you do and will continue to fall down on this forum.

I do the get the feeling that you don’t understand why FFP was introduced.

You may carry some weight with fellow professionals on here but you carry absolutely non with a man like me. Before anything else I am a Manchester City fan. You don’t come across this way.

That’s all I’ll say on the matter.

I've been a season ticket holder since '83 was there for all the dark days, stopped going when I moved to London but first and foremost I am a (sadly addicted) fan. But it is irrelevant why FFP was set up - it is 2020 and we deal with the problem before us. It is pointless crying about FFP when we acquiesced the rules for many years, took the UEFA cash, participated and played along. If FFP or a breakaway was being discussed today, we'd be killing ourselves to be at the top table. That's life.

So you can keep harping on about the unfairness of FFP, to me it's just not relevant and it is certainly not relevant to CAS.

 

[slbsn]

Yes, but.......
Soriano said the case was political.
The red teams meet regularly in Mcr and NY. Not dicussing the price of fish.
Several odd deals with Uefa by G14 teams: PSG, Liverpool (oh, that expenditure was by a previous owner So it doesn't count).
Uefa have done the bidding of G14 on the format of the CL, Leaving debt out of ffp, TV money formula ("it's ridiculous that man city got the biggest pay out". Real spokesman)
G14 captured major positions at uefa, three quarters of ECA exec seats, all voting for each other like the euro song contest.
Maybe not conspiracy, but 'cooperation' of an unhealthy nature. Lobbying is all very well, but uefa just give in to them every time. And should they be lobbying the 'independent' IC and AC?
Adam Smith said that, the moment you interfere with free markets, you get clandestine meetings in smoke filled back rooms, as big players put the fix in.
The fix is in.

If it is a fix, CAS will find in our favour. I am confident of that.

 

[Cobwebcat]

If City felt that FFP was bollocks then the club should have challenged it when it was introduced. They didn't, they've agreed to Uefa's rules so it's absurd now that people are still trotting the line of "it's unfair".

This whole blaming other clubs is a nonsense. It's a competitive, multi billion industry where finishing fourth is a guaranteed £100m with CL qualification. The idea that other clubs are going to sit idly by and want City to get off freely if we have broken rules is a nonsense.

True but at what point does lobbying become more than that and anti-competitive. It’s a fine line. It wasn’t practical to challenge FFP but that doesn’t mean we have to go along with every UEFA ruling against us and we haven’t...hence CAS.

 

[ancoats]

Experience?

hahah nope just heard it was

 

[fallowfield]

I've been a season ticket holder since '83 was there for all the dark days, stopped going when I moved to London but first and foremost I am a (sadly addicted) fan. But it is irrelevant why FFP was set up - it is 2020 and we deal with the problem before us. It is pointless crying about FFP when we acquiesced the rules for many years, took the UEFA cash, participated and played along. If FFP or a breakaway was being discussed today, we'd be killing ourselves to be at the top table. That's life.

So you can keep harping on about the unfairness of FFP, to me it's just not relevant and it is certainly not relevant to CAS.

Agreed. FFP is bollox but so what at this point. The fact that most City fans hate it and think it's set up to get us has no relevance now.
In my view we tried to get around the FFP regulations and I've no problem with that to be honest and I make no apologies for it when discussing it with other fans.
Issue is we got pulled up over it and none of us here know if we've got this irrefutable proof to clear us.

Have to trust that we do have the proof or why would we risk everything.
.

 

[bluetonium]

The only thing I know for sure is that the odds on the British media reporting us being cleared in a positive way, are far worse than us actually being cleared.

I look forward to Monday with hope. Could do with this mental torture ending definitively.

It's not about the champions League, or even about keeping our best players for me, it's about accusations against our club and leadership that have been pushed through to severe punishment and ignited the anger and derisory comments of many other clubs, officials and fans, and in the bigger picture either we are right and there are people abusing their positions of power to unfairly influence our competitiveness, or our trusted leaders are lying. Everything we achieved is questioned or written off as cheating, the incredible last two seasons barely mentioned yet they were record breaking.

What many journalists and media outlets have totally forgotten in this, or ignored completely due to their own bias and jealousy of what we have become, is that there are real fans at the bottom of this. Match going, hard working, blue to the core fans who have a right to support city, have done it forever and will do so regardless, but have to read and listen to one sided bile spouted about us and our club. There is hardly a live game, match report or transfer story that doesn't mention oil wealthy city, wrongdoing and punishment right now, many gleefully. I truly hope every one of them is eating their words come this time next week, and getting a locking from their superiors for completely missing the bigger story.

If it is good news for us, then it could leave the FFP process in tatters. That'll be our fault too, but if we are cleared then it inevitably highlights serious faults with the legitimacy and fairness of the process, and will be interesting to see if uefa reform it. Maybe then they'll actually use FFP to help all clubs with a safety net, rather than to keep stuffing the fat cats at the top table.