I have never seen people talk about sportwashing for Malaga with their owner being a part of the royal family of Qatar (even if distant relative to the emir).Does anyone really think this is about the owners? If they just gave up and backed off you’d never hear about them again, about sportswashing, weaponising of fans. All you’d hear as our trophies dwindled would be about the usual clubs regaining their rightful place....and there’s the root of it all
I wouldn't want to speculate, our focus will be completely on getting CAS to nullify this case initially. The club obviously feel the evidence here, and I suspect this will be specifically of UEFAs own guidelines not being followed at this stage only, is strong. It does appear they have cut some corners, the rushed last day announcement, the hacked emails and more, certainly can't confirm that myself but it would appear three separate firms of lawyers all felt that way, and if demonstrably against the rules then CAS won't like that and maybe we see a way to end this rumour and suggestions of wrong doing financially, for good.If we are successful in our appeal with CAS any ideas on how and where we might pursue UEFA further?
Another couple of things (whilst bearing in mind that we may lose at CAS);
1) No-one should fall for the line that the media will no doubt spin, that abuse of process is a "technicality". It isn't. Correct process is a right of the accused in order to achieve fairness. If the process is abused it means that it hasn't been fair and any conclusions reached as a result of that process are entirely invalid.
The more profound issue, which, if abuse of process is proven, is the question of why the process was abused. It may be accidental oversight or it may be malicious flouting of the rules. To me, the thoughtfully-timed breaches of the confidentiality rules would imply the latter.
2. For the reason described above, UEFA should not reach any conclusion based on an investigation in breach of its own rules. To do so, and to publish such findings, notwithstanding a Court case alleging just such breaches would imply that UEFA consider smearing and thus financially damaging the accused is more important than fairness. That, in itself, would tell us a lot about the process, but I wouldn't put it past UEFA.
I wonder what the timescale is for the hearing of our case.
Only recently. We’ve spent the last seven or eight years (as fans) wishing we were tougher. It’s pleasing to see the gloves are finally off.I like that about City owners. They are much more aggressive and direct than other clubs towards UEFA bullshit.
I wouldn't want to speculate, our focus will be completely on getting CAS to nullify this case initially. The club obviously feel the evidence here, and I suspect this will be specifically of UEFAs own guidelines not being followed at this stage only, is strong. It does appear they have cut some corners, the rushed last day announcement, the hacked emails and more, certainly can't confirm that myself but it would appear three separate firms of lawyers all felt that way, and if demonstrably against the rules then CAS won't like that and maybe we see a way to end this rumour and suggestions of wrong doing financially, for good.
There is of course another equally damaging scenario. UEFA are cautious about the case and how to proceed and a number of its members Rick Parry et al are breaking rank in their frustration (and anger of not necessarily getting what they want) leaking this crap to the media to put pressure on uefa. The G14 cartel are arseholes but UEFA have legal professionals in place who will know what they are dealing with the potential downsides of their case - most lawyers are ultra cautious and conservative. We sometimes see UEFA as a single entity - I think there may be the possible that they are split over this and very conflicted in respect of the case against us.... we know the G14 have us as guilty and are trying to retrospectively construct a case... if UEFA have any decent lawyers they will be briefing against this and highlighting the dangers.
I wouldn't want to speculate, our focus will be completely on getting CAS to nullify this case initially. The club obviously feel the evidence here, and I suspect this will be specifically of UEFAs own guidelines not being followed at this stage only, is strong. It does appear they have cut some corners, the rushed last day announcement, the hacked emails and more, certainly can't confirm that myself but it would appear three separate firms of lawyers all felt that way, and if demonstrably against the rules then CAS won't like that and maybe we see a way to end this rumour and suggestions of wrong doing financially, for good.
From there I guess it depends on what else we have uncovered and what that suggests, which has to look probably also at what motivated uefa or individuals to act in such a way. We still very much want European success for the club to help launch the reputation of the club to the next level, but clearly the softly softly approach has gone as what uefa propose could impact the clubs growth and reputation significantly.
But Khaldoon did say, when people at top clubs meet and agree things, we find out about that. UEFA themselves have a far from clean nose and their motivations for acting in such a way could, by the a process of a legal challenge where evidence must be submitted by necessity, be exposed and proven as either misguided and damaging to some abiding clubs, or even as competitors deliberately infringing on competition law via use of a governing sport body in a multi billion euro / dollar sport.
But one step at a time. First you line up your ducks :)