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

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

Even the Joan Gamper trophy?

What a great day that was. Martin Petrov goal, them hitting the woodwork seemingly 20 times and first start for Tevez.

 

[cibaman]

I am not worried about this in the slightest now. Very very confident we will get off and all will be well. Just going to enjoy the next few weeks.

Hoping for United to finish 5th?

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

What a great day that was. Martin Petrov goal, them hitting the woodwork seemingly 20 times and first start for Tevez.

And the City fans signing "you don't know what you're doing" to Dunny just before he lifted the trophy!

 

[route46]

is it possible the Email about Etihad only paying £8m is from when the airway was in financial trouble?

Etihad tell City they can only afford £8m of the sponsorship deal and HH will honour the outstanding balance?

 

[Len Rum]

Who knows. Wheneveryyou go into court it's head to pedict the outcome. Who thought OJ Simpson would walk free?
I think we have a reasonably strong case on procedural grounds alone but whether that will be enough for City I dont know, as people will see it merely as getting off on a technicality. They may want to go onto the front foot and take the fight further.

That's about my assessment of the strength of our case.
It's certainly not the slam dunk, wham bam thank you mam case that many think City have got up their sleeve.
Notwithstanding the fact that it may or may not fall within CAS's remit, I would be happier if our technical argument against the 'inflated sponsorship' accusation was stronger.You yourself stated in the blog with Cheesy that you felt that our procedural case was stronger than our technical one.
So unless City have found a show stopper argument such as the 'out of time' issue, which a senior lawyer has argued is in City's favour*, then IMO all this points to CAS splitting the difference and ruling on a one year ban.
* PS see below part deux ( maurizio post) , hope this strengthens our case!

 

[Boris Becker’s Backhand]

Gary Neville of all people coming out and calling Uefa an incompetent and badly run organisation and he expects City to win tells you a lot about this shit storm. The other thing is Uefa are The Court of Arbitration For Sport’s biggest client. They can’t investigate and reach a sound conclusion of a case with out the other people’s legal team picking holes in what they do. The guy who is leading this investigation from the UEFA side of things nearly managed to crash a bank into a ground, is he a fit and proper person to be conducting this?

Neville’s a clueless gobshite, if he expects us to win I’m worried

 

[maurizio]

This from Stefan is brilliant. A surgical look at what the 2014 settlement and subsequent CAS cases tells us about what could happen.

Thanks for posting. This is excellent and explained a lot. Everyone should read this blog both parts. "The author is a more than 20 year English qualified lawyer, current public company Chief Executive Officer, former General Counsel, former financial adviser to the Board of Manchester City and an experienced litigator including in matters of complex accounting".

 

[richards30]

He must have spent well over 2bn on CFG as a whole which is why he brought in Silverlake. Sure, he has a paper profit but the committment is huge in financial and emotional terms. He wont go.

surely no one has thought mansour and khaldoon would go? What started out as an investment and exposure opportunity for Abu Dhabi has become an obsession for them and they are now fans as well as owners! Check out mansours social media pages and his palace has all sorts of city memorabilia hanging up on the walls etc!

 

[HalfwayUpTheKippax]

Henry Winter wrote this in January last year when the dippers were 7 points clear and just before City beat them.

Every supporter should celebrate if Liverpool triumph

Most of the article is hidden behind the Times' paywall but the title of the article tells you everything you need to kow.

He got a hard on for them in 2014 until Slippy G spoilt it for him like a whack with a cold spoon

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

Your assumption here is that UEFA are acting rationally yet everything that comes out of that organisation suggests an almost visceral and institutional hatred of MCFC and its owners.

Presumably though they are under legal advice the same as we are, and a willingness to sign their own death warrants is a bit of a stretch even for UEFA’s morons

 

[OB1]

Bingo. That’s what concerns me. Pressure from the rags, Bayern, et al, notwithstanding, if the evidence we presented was clear cut, surely UEFA would have known that to contest the matter further would likely result in their own destruction. Going in with anything that’s open to interpretation is a dangerous game to play

It's a concern but City have stuck to their irrefutable line so maybe all it needs is to be put before a body that contains reasonable men.

 

[BillyShears]

Thanks for posting. This is excellent and explained a lot. Everyone should read this blog both parts. "The author is a more than 20 year English qualified lawyer, current public company Chief Executive Officer, former General Counsel, former financial adviser to the Board of Manchester City and an experienced litigator including in matters of complex accounting".

Exactly.

Hilarious seeing Miggles Delaney calling Stefan's first part "unreadable" and "impenetrable". Quite a scary admission for a journalist to make. Not sure he realises quite he stupid he looks at times.

 

[sir baconface]

When do tickets for the CAS hearing go on sale?

Sir Robert Charlton likes this.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Exactly.

Hilarious seeing Miggles Delaney calling Stefan's first part "unreadable" and "impenetrable".

Are you sure he wasn't referring to Jonathan Liew's writing style?

 

[OB1]

Presumably though they are under legal advice the same as we are, and a willingness to sign their own death warrants is a bit of a stretch even for UEFA’s morons

I'm not remotely convinced of the competence of UEFA so I would not rule out them having cocked-up. Also, it's possible that people withing UEFA have been told their jobs won't be under threat if they find us guilty and it gets overturned subsequently. They know the media are against us so might think it is worth trying it on.

 

[Norbiton]

This from Stefan is brilliant. A surgical look at what the 2014 settlement and subsequent CAS cases tells us about what could happen.

Great forensic analysis, no wonder journalists don't like seeing the kind of thing they should be doing themselves. One thing puzzled me - it states that Sheikh Mansour chairs the investment company which owns Etihad. I'd thought this was true of the other two smaller AD sponsors, but not Etihad or is he just quoting Conn's article which might well have made an error about this.

 

[Nicholas van Whatsisface]

Exactly.

Hilarious seeing Miggles Delaney calling Stefan's first part "unreadable" and "impenetrable". Quite a scary admission for a journalist to make. Not sure he realises quite he stupid he looks at times.

That is a frankly alarming admission for a supposedly credible journalist who expects people to respect his opinion on this story to make - if he can't understand the legal and financial arguments which underpin this issue, what's the point in anyone giving his opinion any greater credence than your average fan in the street?

Proper journalists are supposed to add value and insight to the narrative - not just spout ill-informed, poorly-researched opinion.

My impression is that this is more an admission of the one-eyed nature of his reporting, and his flagrant lack of interest in providing anything approaching balance in his reporting - he doesn't even want to try and understand both sides of the story, even if only to argue why he thinks one side may be wrong.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Exactly.

Hilarious seeing Miggles Delaney calling Stefan's first part "unreadable" and "impenetrable". Quite a scary admission for a journalist to make. Not sure he realises quite he stupid he looks at times.

Well I and others tell him how stupid he looks often enough so he should be getting the message by now.

 

[BillyShears]

Are you sure he wasn't referring to Jonathan Liew's writing style?

My lawyers have had me delete my reply to your post above on grounds of it being libellous and Jonny and Miggles already having a hard on for me.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

Its as if regardless of CAS City intend to go to a court of law once CAS has finished

Yeh, that would seem likely and I expect City to do that, win or lose at CAS. If we lose at CAS and then take it all to Court though, then the hammering we’re taking off the press at the moment, will be as nothing compared to what is to come. “Arrogant bullies who won’t admit that they cheated”, etc etc.
Also, the suspicious old coot in me, makes me wonder if the cartel would quite like us to dismantle UEFA in Court and leave them (the cartel) free to strike out on their own with a Euro league, with MCFC not invited.
One thing I do know, is that it’s all fucking stressful and, as a fan, my hatred for these people is off the scale. After 30 years of thin and thinner, I just wanted to savour the joy of watching my team play beautiful football and maybe win a trophy or two, but the bitter cnuts have done everything in their power to try and prevent that from the get go. I hope we destroy them, but I’m far from confident based on how subjective the law is