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

[FrankSwift1]

I see it completely the opposite way, by accepting a reduced punishment we are accepting guilt, which means we are accepting being called cheats. By fighting this in the courts, however long it takes, we can prove that we did NOT cheat.

If it gets proven the other way and we did cheat, then at least everything is transparent and open. We may have understood or interpreted certain rules in a different way, at least we'll know for future reference and be able to comply with the rules going forward.

I trust Mansour and Khaldoon, everything they have said so far they've done and more, we as fans have absolutely no right not to give them the benefit of the doubt and trust them until proven otherwise. UEFA's ruling is nothing more than UEFA's wish, they've been judge, jury and executioner in this process so far.

I see the argument but if we win we still lose. The reputational damage this has caused is not going away no matter what happens.

 

[manimanc]

It was part of the toxic article by Herbert.

Fancy writing a pile of shite and then having a surname Herbert.
Nothing like drawing attention to yourself is there.

 

[xgorton]

Always rags coming out with these comments 'what if, what if, what if'.

I genuinely think it stems from the fact that they choose to support United for glory, I didn't choose City, I was born in to it so whatever happens I'll enjoy the ride. If United were relagated they'd probably stop supporting them.

By Stone, the fat prick.

Stones is a first class coont,he was doing his usual reporting from the swamp early on in the season on the BBC web site and said the fans in full voice again with U-N-I-T-E-D the nursery rhyme song ending in why don't fack off home, unbelievable for a reporter we should ban the tw-t from City.

 

[bewildered]

After the events of the last few days I cant help but think that City have made a huge strategic error. Apparently we were offered a way out of this with a technical breach and small fine. (Similar to the Fifa case). By refusing to negotiate it seems we have pushed UEFA to go nuclear with us.

Even if the ban is overturned by Cas this doesnt clear us and its my understanding we have to carry the fight on in Swiss courts(?).

Even if we are eventually cleared which is far from certain the reputational damage of the ban and potential future case with UEFA is enormous. Pretty much the whole footballing world has heard Manchester City are cheats for the last few days and will narative will continue and wont stop even if we win the case. It will turn to, 'well what did you expect when they can buy the bsst lawyers'

Wouldn't it have been sensible to take the fine and carry on as normal. Who would care apart from Johny from Liverpool on twitter.

By taking this risk we have potentially affected our ability to compete for the next 3 4 years but also will forever be known as cheats. We can all argue with internet warriors till we are blue in the face but the label will surely affect out ability to attract commercial sponsorship and grow our fan base in the developing football markets such as India, China and the US.

Sorry Frank but I disagree.

The club are insisting that they have done nothing wrong.

In the past they accepted an arrangement like you describe and UEFA have now gone back to that period and opened up the can of worms again.

If the club are right, then they have to stand up for their integrity.

If they accept another deal they are admitting guilt.

 

[Uncle Wally One Ball]

Do you have a link to this? Is it the one with Cheeseman?

I wouldnt mind that link if you get it please

 

[FrankSwift1]

We don't know what deal was offered. Maybe it required us to admit certain charges.

True. Of course depends what was offered. But technical breach doesn't sound like a huge deal.

 

[aguero93:20]

If the choice was accept a small fine or spend time in prison 100% I would.

Really? What if the charge was sexually assaulting a minor?

 

[willipp]

'PB's document' should be discussed by the football-finance experts. It's central to UEFA's case against City. Was the UAE sponsorship legitimate?

Agreed. However the media have pretty much across the board branded us cheats, grubby, liars, crazy fans, the list goes on. The document from PB certainly questions the legitamcy of what we think we are being charged with and that effectively shows the media as a whole to be biased liars and wrong. The bottom line is they will try and bury any evidence that shows them to be wrong about us.

 

[M18CTID]

I agree. No one wants this case thrown out and City cleared more than me, but there is a level of confidence on this thread that I find hard to share.
I don’t believe UEFA are as thick as they are being made out and I don’t trust CAS.
For all the so called experts on here, it’s funny that not one poster predicted the 2 year ban.

Not an expert on this by any means, but I posted this on Jan 2nd in the Pep thread. Now I'm not banging my own drum or anything because it was simply info passed onto me but as a result of what I was told, the news on Friday didn't come as a complete shock to me:

I don’t want to be seen to be piggy-backing on this, but I heard a very similar story about 10 days ago - not from anyone within the club but from someone who has decent contacts. The only difference was that it wasn’t a definite he would be leaving at the end of the season, but it could well happen, and Pochettino is the one they’re looking at if he does go. There was also some, shall we say, rather negative news about the FFP investigation, and talk of a 3 year ban but with 2 suspended. I found that one very difficult to believe as unless there is a smoking gun piece of evidence then City would never accept that in a million years and it’s off to CAS we go. Plus it goes against what Sam Lee was reporting not so long ago and he’s usually quite reliable with City info.

 

[domalino]

There is a level of confidence because 99.9% of people haven't got a fucking clue, they keep mentioning army of lawyers, and let the battle commence, they go on as if UEFA are using Noreen down the road coz she's good with words, UEFA obviously have something on us, we will see, and hopefully we can prove ourselves

Or maybe there's a level of confidence because UEFA have a history of losing at CAS?

UEFA must have had something on PSG to take them to CAS! Oh wait they got the case thrown out.

UEFA must have had something on Lyon to take them to CAS! Oh wait they got the case thrown out.

UEFA must have had something on AC Milan to take them to CAS! Oh wait, they rejected UEFA's ban and told the Adjudicatory board to make a sensible punishment.


One of the parties in this dispute has a long a storied history of overplaying its hand, over punishing clubs and getting slapped down by an independent panel (CAS). That party is not Manchester City.

 

[@BluePhil8]

If the choice was accept a small fine or spend time in prison 100% I would.

So you'd accept the associated guilt even if it meant being labelled a pedo or a murderer for the rest of your life?

 

[SidJames]

I've said this all along. It's perfectly proper for a business to seek to operate within a regulatory environment in such a way as to comply with the letter of the regulations in question while pursuing its own interests. If the relevant regulations have been deficiently drafted so as not to catch everything that the regulator wanted, that's the regulator's fault. It can't then go and impose sanctions based on what it wishes it had drafted.

Of course we'll see in due course when more information finds its way into the public domain, but I think there's at least some genuine chance that it will emerge that UEFA has done precisely this. Certainly, based on the evidence that's been made public so far, that possibility very definitely can't be excluded. And yet not a single journalist that I've seen so far has taken the point on board. Tells you all you need to know about their understanding of the issues and their good faith.

This.

It is perfectly legal for Big Businesses to circumvent rules, and regulations within the remit of the law.Big companies hire the best accountants to do just this for them.Apple,Amazon etc

If a third party with others interests at Heart, puts restrictive legislature in to place to try and limit growth.Then obviously you hire top accountants to find a legal work around.

I am not saying we have done this by the way.

I am just saying i will be amazed if our owners have done anything wrong other than hire a top firm of accountants that found a work around.

UEFA likely then threw their Toys out the Pram and had a temper tantrum because said accountants found a workaround.

I keep hearing we have broken rules...........what fucking rules ?

Circumventing rules is fundamentally different to breaking rules.

Only a idiot breaks rules.

Going to be interesting when what we are accused of hits the legal Courts.And other conflicts of interest are laid bare,too many to list,but lets start with the instigators of the Witch hunt Bayern Munich and their sponsors Audi,Volkswagen,Adidas,and their connection to UEFA.

 

[KS55]

A couple of thoughts occur.
1. Why are people assuming we won't argue the facts of the case at CAS? Surely we want to prove our innocence.
2. Khaldoon has been adamant we are innocent. This guy holds directorships not just in AD but all round the world. He has been decorated by UK, Italy and S.Korea. Would he risk all that with a lie?

 

[Ardwick Green Blue]

There is a huge amount of wishful thinking in this thread I’d say.

In an ideal world we would win the CAS appeal on all points and the sanctions would be cancelled. We would then go to a court of law (Swiss court?) and again we would need to win comprehensively. Then any appeal by UEFA would have to be rejected and then we would pursue them for exemplary damages. This would result in FFP being dropped and possibly the end of UEFA in its current form.

How likely is any of that? Only the first part (CAS appeal) has much chance of success I reckon. The rest is wishful thinking unfortunately.

 

[FrankSwift1]

Nah, if it gets overturned we just carry on.
People have got short memories, murdering fans hasn’t hurt lfc long term, juventus came back from match fixing.
We’ll likely never be accepted into the inner circle, winning things is the best way to fight them.

Im as furious as everyone here and of course we did take the pinch and it came back to haunt us. I just cant see this ever subsiding. We will be questioned about this in 10 years. Its a huge story. Whereas a small fine would be done with in a month or so.

 

[Gordyola]

After the events of the last few days I cant help but think that City have made a huge strategic error. Apparently we were offered a way out of this with a technical breach and small fine. (Similar to the Fifa case). By refusing to negotiate it seems we have pushed UEFA to go nuclear with us.

Even if the ban is overturned by Cas this doesnt clear us and its my understanding we have to carry the fight on in Swiss courts(?).

Even if we are eventually cleared which is far from certain the reputational damage of the ban and potential future case with UEFA is enormous. Pretty much the whole footballing world has heard Manchester City are cheats for the last few days and will narative will continue and wont stop even if we win the case. It will turn to, 'well what did you expect when they can buy the bsst lawyers'

Wouldn't it have been sensible to take the fine and carry on as normal. Who would care apart from Johny from Liverpool on twitter.

By taking this risk we have potentially affected our ability to compete for the next 3 4 years but also will forever be known as cheats. We can all argue with internet warriors till we are blue in the face but the label will surely affect out ability to attract commercial sponsorship and grow our fan base in the developing football markets such as India, China and the US.

If we had accepted "offered a way out of this with a technical breach and small fine" This is something we did first time around and look where that got us
Then we still would have "forever be known as cheats"

 

[sir baconface]

We are very isolated at the moment. The media aren't interested in the facts. Slagging the club off and looking at points deductions, relegations, bans and retrospective points deductions is far more interesting.

Keep quiet. Win our case before the CAS.

Then turn things on UEFA. Sue them for damages, take them down in the courts, rip FFP to shreds and publicise the corruption in UEFA. Do it whilst winning the CL and unleashing a summer spending spree that shows how heavily backed and strong our club is.

It’s our ability to spend our way out of every situation that makes us so unpopular. In that sense we won’t win this case whichever way it goes.

 

[George Hannah]

Lest we forget our 'quality press'

the scum of the earth are feasting on our carcass​

 

[bewildered]

Laterme/Qatar/G14/UEFA v City/Khaldoon/UAE.

Its become very personal for a few individuals this fight.

Yes and the geopolitical element of it wrt Qatar should not be underestimated. I would imagine the Saudi's that are looking at buying into Newcastle might be an ally in this but who knows.

 

[BlueMoonz1977]

I expect it will all come out

Juves fiat sponsorship which was substantially increased prior to the ronaldo deal.
Fiat which is owned by the Agnelli familly
The same Agnelli who is Juves president and whos sons godfather is supposardly Cefarin.

staggering....and that just shows the amount of leeway/bias the established UEFA cartel clubs have got over those clubs seeking to become successful