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

What do you think will be the outcome of the CAS hearing?

  • Two-year ban upheld

    Votes: 197 13.1%
  • Ban reduced to one year

    Votes: 422 28.2%
  • Ban overturned and City exonerated

    Votes: 815 54.4%
  • Other

    Votes: 65 4.3%

  • Total voters
    1,499
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I'd assume that the lawyers involved would be the ones who see the information, and they'd generally be pretty keen to keep their reputations intact.

@gordondaviesmoustache's point about maybe holding back up to now sounds like a reasonable point, but presumably doesn't hold when it goes to CAS.
Did I misinterpret the CAS report or is it not true that only evidence that has already been presented in the ruling against us is admissible now. UEFA can't throw anything new into the mix now.
I also took that as meaning if we have anything up our sleeve, it had better be in the 200 page dossier, as we can't present anything new at this point in time. That would have to come after CAS.

Have I got that wrong?
 
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...nvestigation-into-abu-dhabi-sponsors-football

This is our friend Conn’s latest article.

He argues that UEFA were duped about Etihad being able to fund the sponsorship deal. He alleges that, in the event, Sheikh Monsour covered the debt.

Consequently, according to Conn, Etihad should now be treated as a ”related party” and the fair value of the sponsorship subjected to scrutiny.

If re-valued downwards, that would affect our accounts on an ongoing basis, not just up to 2016. He’s raising this as a new spectre.

In effect it’s a slightly re-packaged frightener on his part, not based on new evidence or revelations.

That’s my take FWIW.
I’ve actually been thinking about this myself.

We were cleared and signed off by UEFA from 2013-14 up to 2015-16 for complying with FFP in that period. But it was complying with FFP in respect of not incurring losses in that time period.

UEFA say they have “evidence” that we have gone against FFP regulations in that time period in another way than not incurring losses... City say that can’t be looked at as we were already signed off by UEFA for that time period but are City right? Were were we signed off for all FFP related issues or just compliance with not incurring losses?

Can that case be re-opened if it’s a different kind of FFP rule breaks?

City also say the “evidence” has been illegally obtained and that what the “evidence” shows is not the actual reality... this may be true, but can UEFA still open up investigations into it?
 
Did I misinterpret the CAS report or is it not true that only evidence that has already been presented in the ruling against us is admissible now. UEFA can't throw anything new into the mix now.
I also took that as meaning if we have anything up our sleeve, it had better be in the 200 page dossier, as we can't present anything new at this point in time. That would have to come after CAS.

Have I got that wrong?

I don't know. If we couldn't dispel allegations in 200 pages, we're probably doing it wrong.
I'd think that no new allegations can be brought in certainly.
 
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.

He's got less credibility as a journalist than I do as a contributor on Bluemoon. That's really bad for him.
 
And the City fans signing "you don't know what you're doing" to Dunny just before he lifted the trophy!
The other stand outs were how far away from the pitch we were and there was a bloke there rejoicing at them selling alcohol in the stadium. “I’ve already had five bottles in the ground and am well on the way. Far more civilised than England and this Sin Alcohol isn’t half bad”!
 
I have this to say to the press and Media:

99% of you are corrupt whores who have prostituted the little talent you have. I don't give a damn what you think or write about the Club I love and have followed since 1964/65. Paid liars do not impress me - their opinions are utterly worthless. Especially when (as applies to many of you) they work for corrupt plutocratic arseholes who care only about avoiding tax and hold the general population in utter contempt. So you (and UEFA) can fuck off. Go and find some morals.
 
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.
That's not true about Etihad. I think he's quoting Conn. Sheikh Mansour has no direct connection with Etihad.
 
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

I suggested that a break away league will happen ……...paddypower put it on there advert lolol
 
I still feel that the club should have boycotted the Madrid game in protest (and in doing so, completely devalued the credibility of this year's competition.

Then, rather than appealing to CAS (which win or lose we'll still be viewed as arrogant bullies by the.media) we should attack the whole concept of FFP, via the European courts.

As it is, there's something about our smug attitude last summer that makes me worry.
We all applauded Khaldoon's end of season interview, but amidst all his smiling rehearsed answers I don't recall him predicting this outcome.
 
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
I’m with you on the stress side, I’m defending City every way I look at the moment and what comes across is rival,fans haven’t a clue what is actually going on, they just see the cheat headlines, UEFA May have played a blinder if it all gets thrown out especially on a technicality then they can say they’ve done their job and we were guilty, shit sticks, we will be forever labelled that and it would hurt us in the long run, or UEFA shot themselves in the foot if we are exonerated and go to court to rip them a new one, hoping it’s the latter and the arrogance of UEFA has screwed they up. I think a huge change will come after this either way as everyone is now seeing this played out worldwide in the press at just how corrupt and elitist UEFA are, there seems to be a groundswell of support for us, Christ even Talkshite are behind us!
 
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.

I wonder if UEFA, under pressure from certain clubs, have pursued a case that they don’t expect to win at CAS. What they hope is that City win on issues of limitation periods or breach or fair procedure.

If we do then the cheating/ financial doping/ fraud allegations made in the press aren’t defeated and it’s presented as City getting off on a technicality.

The result is damage to City’s reputation without punishment. So we would forever be associated with cheating FFP but only getting off because of our legal team.
 
I do wonder if that it what has happened. City may have reluctantly concluded that UEFA were so unreasonable that their best course of action was to wait.

Something isn't right about the whole thing: we should have been able to kill this stone dead at UEFA if we did not break their rules. Perhaps their interpretation of the rules or evidence differs from City's.

Yes, there's an odd contradiction at the heart of the matter. UEFA sources seem to be briefing their friendly journalists (Panja and the like) that they're confident of CAS upholding their position. Yet MCFC continue to maintain that the club has "irrefutable evidence" to back up its claims that there are no grounds for punishment. Logic dictates that one of these propositions must be wrong.

Now, I can't stress strongly enough that what follows in this post is absolute speculation. It's just my best guess at the kind of scenario which might give rise to the oddity described in the preceding paragraph.

If there's an element of subjectivity, then in the absence of further information I can only think that it must be around the definition of a "related party". Of course I could be completely wrong here and this is purely speculation on my part, but maybe City are continuing to maintain that the Abu Dhabi sponsors aren't related parties, while UEFA are claiming that they entered into a settlement agreement in which that proposition wasn't challenged in the absence of the newly information about Abu Dhabi state funding of our sponsorships that would have altered their view on that topic. It may (or may not) be that the settlement agreement contains provisions that allow UEFA to reopen matters if they consider themselves not to have been provided with all relevant information at the time, and they regard the information about AD state subsidy of the sponsorships as meeting that criterion.

Interestingly, Panja and his boss at the NYT were tweeting yesterday about the possibility of some kind of settlement, while Tony Evans tweeted an article he'd written (which I confess to not having read) that seemed to purport to urge the parties to get together and sort things out. These journalists have in the past relayed material ostensibly sourced by people who are connected with the case and certainly aren't in the MCFC camp. I wonder whether this might point towards UEFA hoping for a settlement before matters reach CAS.

In this hypothetical event, I'd actually be tempted as long as they'd agree to a suspended ban and reduced fine, together with a statement that any breaches were technical and entailed no intention to deceive UEFA. Even if our case is relatively strong, litigation and arbitration can always be a lottery to some extent and it's invariably better to avoid it if you can.

The prospect of the club's majority shareholder and our Abu Dhabi stakeholders accepting a settlement on the terms that I would is, in my uninformed view, negligible. Remember that UEFA have found us guilty of inflating sponsorships and, if that's true, it means the club's audited accounts are inaccurate. That's a big accusation to throw at a business, because it brings into question the honesty and good faith of those running it as well as of the auditors. For that reason, in my opinion only total exoneration is likely to be seen as acceptable in the UAE.
 
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