As others have pointed out, if the worst comes to the worst, if you're going to be banned, it's a good time and I'm not sure it would be worth taking it further.
The financial implications of the lockdown have created an unprecedented financial crisis and every club will be losing money. That means FFP regulations will have to be relaxed to allow owner investment otherwise some prominent football clubs face going to the wall. This is an area where we are on particularly strong ground. On the other hand, united and Liverpool need that money just to cover the losses they are currently incurring rather than being able to invest in players and pull further away from us.
Assuming that the Champions League TV rights for the next two years stay the same, which is far from certain given the state of the product, we'd lose out on around £150m. Unlike when the rules were introduced, we can cover that with the sale of one or two players. Not a very palatable thought but, in business terms, the correct response to give us breathing space. Can we do that whilst still challenging for the domestic title ? I believe we can and, if necessary, will. Certainly whilst our rivals are fighting debt fires, our owners will be constructing a new business plan from a position of relative strength.
As for reputational damage. Every single person you hear pontificating knows exactly what FFP was created for and its very creation has tarnished the whole product. The chief architects are shooting themselves in the foot in the belief that football is all about them. It isn't and, in the not too distant future, they'll come to realise that. Our reputation will recover. Prominent clubs have done a lot worse (Liverpool and Juventus I'm looking at you) and recovered and we will too.
Embrace next week's hearing. Whichever way it goes, we'll win out in the end.
