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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While it obviously isn't that simple for a bunch of reasons, the fact is that litigation is messy and the inherent uncertainly of a trial, even when you mostly have the facts on your side, makes the whole thing an extremely risky proposition. I'm sure we will have the best counsel that money can buy, but there is a very good reason that some 90% of lawsuits end up in a pre-trial settlement, when you go before a judge you just never fucking know. In my opinion we've fucked up royally by allowing it to get anywhere close to this far.
It's not simple but it is interesting. FFP founder Platini is arrested in Qatar World Cup investigation involving Sarkozy and PSG; City's owners believe Pinto hacking may be linked to Qatari agents (suggests Ziegler in the Times yesterday); Qatari PSG boss joins UEFA's top team and PSG are let off the hook; then after a series of leaks City are thrown out of Europe after an investigation led by Yves Leterme (the man who brokered the PSG deal) I am as sceptical as anyone about conspiracy theories but what can't be disputed is that Abu Dhabi and Qatar are on different sides in a very bloody war in the Middle East at present and there's a lot of dirty tricks going on. I am not saying all these episodes are linked but it does show you the sort of climate CFG is operating in.
 
Tell me which rules we've broken, what the evidence specifically is against us and why the penalty should be reduced.
You're right, we've done absolutely nothing that could be even questioned. No multi billion dollar competition driven company ever does anything on the edge of the rules.
 
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What's wrong with what I said? Even if we haven't broken any actual rules (which I would probably bet on), we were pretty clearly looking to exploit any possible loophole or grey area. And the whole Etihad cashflow situation obviously wasn't contemplated as being okay when they drew them up. That's why I said spirit of the rules.

Think for a minute about what "the spirit" of the rules is.
 
As Mark Stephens, a top UK lawyer, has said today: "Interestingly there is no precedent for UEFA second guessing what is the correct amount for commercial sponsorship deals."

Can anyone enlighten me on the mechanism that UEFA uses to assess "market value"? Is it a scientific formula? Equally, isn't the value of a sponsorship what it's worth to the sponsor rather than the sponsored?

UEFA rely on professional and independent experts. In the original settlement process they used PwC on the accountancy side and a company called Octagon for the sponsorship values.

In City's case during the settlement negotiations and reported as part of the leaks via the French media the figures for 2012/2013 were:

2012/2013
Etihad £65,000,000 actual sponsorship ( this figure actually varies a bit depending which leaks publication you read - there is lot's out there and not just Der Speigel)

Octagon calculated the maximum asset package valuation was £60,000,000 and the Octagon actual client valuation was maximum £50,000,000.

UEFA subsequently accepted the Etihad deal was broadly fair market value and even David Conn has published this.
 
You're right, we've done absolutely nothing that could be even questioned. No multi billion dollar competition driven company ever does anything on the edge of the rules.
Remind me to never get arrested with you
 
The post I was responding to said we hadn't mislead UEFA in any way. Which...like, come on man. I'm as upset as all of you that we got this punishment, which is unfair in my eyes. But we're not 100% innocent here either.

Its a pretty grey area because we didn’t break any rules and like I said the punishment for spirit of the game is a bit ott.
 
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