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

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

Second time the US justice system has come up.

This is the same country where you get 20 years for having a bit of bud on you, get shot by the police for literally doing nothing wrong in some instances, get put on the sex offender register for pissing in public or sleeping with your girlfriend when your both under 18.

They have one of the shittest judicial systems in the world.

It’s not just in the US.
http://www.transformjustice.org.uk/why-on-earth-should-the-innocent-plead-guilty/

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

Isn't that exactly how the US system works?

Lots of innocent people plead guilty due to the plea bargain system.

But given the clubs stance , that would be admitting that their " supporting evidence " wasn't irrevocable and would be seen as accepting guilt.

@projectriver has said that he would have recommended such a settlement if given the option but the club were adament that they were " not guilty " and intended to proceed to a CAS hearing of the case.

Foolhardy or conviction in their " innocence " - everybody will have a view I guess.

 

[DrBlueBob]

That's the issue isn't it! The whole this is absurd.

I think the whole "not a real city fan" is fucking stupid anyway to be honest, no one should feel the need to justify themselves even if they have been called out, if you're a city fan you're a city fan some idiot on the internet doesn't change that. The insult means nothing and shouldn't be taken seriously by anyone.

If someone wants to call me a rag because I didn't go to Leeds away then all power to them!

Rag! (As I'm over an hour late with this I presume I'm not the first) :-)
I didn't go Leeds either, although I did see them play out a score draw at Highbury in the 70's. Cracking Arse goal; volley by a mop haired ginger fella, can't recall his name. Poss David O'Leary reply, memory hazy. Got punched and had my scarf nicked, still traumatised.

 

[FrankSwift1]

If you are innocent, accepting any settlement is acknowledging guilt.

If you, me or anyone else on this forum was wrongly charged in a criminal matter, for something that they were innocent of, I can guarantee that 99.5% of us wouldn’t accept a lesser punishment. You wouldn’t accept any punishment at all because even if it’s a £1 fine, you’re admitting guilt.

That puts the power completely in UEFAs hands; ‘you’ve accepted 2 fines for FFP breaches, as it’s now the third time we are charging you, the punishment will be a 5 year CL ban and £100m fine’

I'm definitely in the 0.5% mate, you have to be pragmatic. Its like being offered a 2 years suspended sentence where the risk of losing is 10 years imprisonment. @projectriver has mentioned that even a strong case only wins 70% of the time so you be advised by you legal to accept suc an offer and foolhardy IMO to refuse.

This links back to @Prestwich_Blue post earlier when he mentioned he was told by Omar Barrada that we had been offered a deal. We admit guilt to a technical breach and receive a fine.

The current fine is £30M so let's say that was what Uefa offered. This risk and repacussions of being found guilty seems very high in comparison.
We stand to lose around £200M for not competing in the CL for 2 seasons, plus any added damage such as player sales, potential PL action, reputation damage etc etc. (Plus thousands of daft City fans time and effort on here)

With this in mind I find it difficult to understand why we would refuse such a deal. Even if we win the case at CAS it could be argued the reputational damage exceeds the cost of accepting the fine.

I know you post in good faith PB and Sam Lee was also briefed the same point but could you contend that Barrada was misinformed about the offer or maybe telling a group a City fans what he believed they wanted to hear?

 

[slbsn]

But given the clubs stance , that would be admitting that their " supporting evidence " wasn't irrevocable and would be seen as accepting guilt.

@projectriver has said that he would have recommended such a settlement if given the option but the club were adament that they were " not guilty " and intended to proceed to a CAS hearing of the case.

Foolhardy or conviction in their " innocence " - everybody will have a view I guess.

These are commercial matters. It isn't a case of guilt, innocence etc. Corporates take commercial decisions on cases even where they don't believe they did anything wrong. You have to weigh up the risk of losing. In City's case, the stakes are very high so you can assume that no settlement means they are genuinely very confident. They may be wrong but it is likely where they are right now.

 

[SilvaisSkyBlue]

Hope he says at other clubs I managed I was blinkered by Uefa and certain clubs power to there own ends.

I expect a dead bat response though if we get a positive result.

I honestly think he will give it both barrels whichever way it goes, like us I think he is fed up of the whole steaming pile of shít we as a club have been subjected to, the dude has reached his limit, should be interesting!

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

If there is fear in the club, there might not be that much confidence in a positive outcome.
But certainly Txiki and his team has to make sure to plan ahead for worst case scenario.

I think that the Man City Extra site undermines itself by re-tweeting content from untrusted sources too often. I understand it is essentially an aggregation platform but if it re-tweets total bollocks it will end up like NewsNow which most sensible people realise is little more than a fake news clickbait feed.

 

[bluenova]

No offence, but I would look at actual third world countries’ Justice Systems in the exact same way I’d view the USAs’.

Not taken :)

The point is that, in real life situations, people will regularly bargain away their "innocence". Now, I don't believe CAS is as biased as the US legal system, but it's still a risk going to court.

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

These are commercial matters. It isn't a case of guilt, innocence etc. Corporates take commercial decisions on cases even where they don't believe they did anything wrong. You have to weigh up the risk of losing. In City's case, the stakes are very high so you can assume that no settlement means they are genuinely very confident. They may be wrong but it is likely where they are right now.

my bad phraseiology . I think you get my drift though, that I believe City want to be seen to be vindicated in their actions. Perhaps I am looking at it from a fan's perspective and not commercially as ( even though the media will ignore it ) I want to see the club's postion upheld - and fuck the media whores .

 

[kaz7]

Ha!! That brings back memories of when we were stationed at RAF Wildenrath in the early ‘90’s. The rage at the time among the wives was Ron Hill track suit bottoms (with a loop at the bottom) with stilettos. We also had a Christmas “do” where The Real Thing were the band...the wife had such a good time that she threw up in the passenger footwell on the way home!! Luckily, being winter, it was so cold that when I was cleaning it up, it had frozen and was really easy to scrape up with a spatula...ah...those days...had a Cavalier SRi 130 that we went to the wife’s mother’s house in LiVARpool after the “first” gulf war which got nicked and torched...I was gutted...both for it being nicked and because the Rayban’s I’d bought over there were in it!!!

Ah,good times ha

 

[slbsn]

my bad phraseiology . I think you get my drift though, that I believe City want to be seen to be vindicated in their actions. Perhaps I am looking at it from a fan's perspective and not commercially as ( even though the media will ignore it ) I want to see the club's postion upheld - and fuck the media whores .

I do get your drift but we really need to get beyond it. There is too much insinuation now regardless of CAS so this clean victory sought is very unlikely even if we win. It doesn't need to be the target. I couldn't care less if we won because UEFA had no right to even look at 2016 for example and therefore CAS gave no view on the substantive matters of sponsorship or cooperation. It's irrelevant to me. We just need to win by any means.

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

I do get your drift but we really need to get beyond it. There is too much insinuation now regardless of CAS so this clean victory sought is very unlikely even if we win. It doesn't need to be the target. I couldn't care less if we won because UEFA had no right to even look at 2016 for example and therefore CAS gave no view on the substantive matters of sponsorship or cooperation. It's irrelevant to me. We just need to win by any means.

Fine with me stefan - get the correct verdict and I am both delighted and relieved .

 

[Robbo]

Sounds like the same Twitter thread I linked to yesterday. It was basically a cobbled together list of all the negative things that could happen to us that have been reported in the press.

with the key words in one of his responses being 'i'm not an expert' and 'speculating'

 

[petrusha]

I couldn't care less if we won because UEFA had no right to even look at 2016 for example and therefore CAS gave no view on the substantive matters of sponsorship or cooperation. It's irrelevant to me. We just need to win by any means.

100% agree with this.

 

[Ardwick Green Blue]

I do get your drift but we really need to get beyond it. There is too much insinuation now regardless of CAS so this clean victory sought is very unlikely even if we win. It doesn't need to be the target. I couldn't care less if we won because UEFA had no right to even look at 2016 for example and therefore CAS gave no view on the substantive matters of sponsorship or cooperation. It's irrelevant to me. We just need to win by any means.

100% agree with this.

A scrappy 1-0 win still means 3 points - it can’t all be 5-0 free flowing thumpings...

 

[slbsn]

A scrappy 1-0 win still means 3 points - it can’t all be 5-0 free flowing thumpings...

Narrow win is often even more satisfying in a big big game

 

[DrBlueBob]

A scrappy 1-0 win still means 3 points - it can’t all be 5-0 free flowing thumpings...

Narrow win is often even more satisfying in a big big game

Even better is coming back to win after being behind and if we get a result it'll feel like that.

 

[chaddblue]

Narrow win is often even more satisfying in a big big game

Here it will be even better if the 1-0 win is courtesy of a comical own goal and the opposition lose their star man with a career ending injury

 

[mayo31]

Which 2 clubs have £150m to spend on one player? None.

So we are not selling then, so who cares then.

Both are on good contracts. Make them stay. Make them all stay

(Manic laugh)

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

A scrappy 1-0 win still means 3 points - it can’t all be 5-0 free flowing thumpings...

FFS Pannick!