UEFA's corrupted FFP (again)

[KunDB]

  Story Link 

Yes, the rigged and corrupted FFP rules are being used again against City. Rather than spend their time ensuring real fair play in footbsll UEFA are investing their time in investigating illegally hacked leaks that City circumvented their corrupted FFP regulations.

Given it was reported by Der Spiegel it is not hard to work out who may be behind and seeking to benefit from this hack.

City have welcomed the investigation as a chance to clear their name.

The statement read: "Manchester City welcomes the opening of a formal UEFA investigation as an opportunity to bring to an end the speculation resulting from the illegal hacking and out of context publication of City emails.

"The accusation of financial irregularities are entirely false. The Club’s published accounts are full and complete and a matter of legal and regulatory record."

[Hesperus]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47490375


And official club statement:

https://www.mancity.com/news/club-news/club-news/2019/march/man-city-club-statement-uefa

[Hesperus]

I don’t know how they can start an investigation based on illegally sourced data, but there you go.

[gavin]

They can take their shitty competition and shove it as far as I'm concerned.

However, like you Hesperus, I feel they are going to have difficulty pressing a case forward based on hacked internal emails.

[Stephen Paul]

Gave up on Euro football years ago , corruption at its highest level

Uefa now investigating City at this stage of the season


Fook off

[Hesperus]

Premier League now investigating us too!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47501423

This is some witch-hunt!

[gavin]

There should be a witch hunt for the idiot(s) that got the emails leaked - whether it is the IT staff, a senior member of management staff or both responsible. Mind you, communicating anything in an email that you don't want public is a risky business.

[KunDB]

Der Spiegel has apparently admitted Rui Pinto (Football Leaks) was behind their City leaks but deny they were hacked.

The story of Rui Pinto and the criminal charges ihe faces in Portugal

Story Extract:
Having first revealed third-party agreements between FC Twente and agents Doyen Sports which broke Dutch Football Association rules â€" a disclosure that led to Twente being banned from European football for three years â€" it is alleged that Pinto turned his sights on Portugal’s domestic league at the end of 2015. Using what Marca’s report described as “a string of hacking techniques to gather information and leak details related to players’ contracts at a number of teams” that included Benfica, Sporting and Porto, it is alleged that he first attempted to blackmail Doyen by demanding more than â,¬500,000 not to disclose sensitive information related to players represented by the agency before publishing the information on the Mercado de Benfica website, which remains active.

Stor refrring to Der Spiegel Rui Pinto source admission

Story Extract:
Der Spiegel has confirmed that its source for the documents was Rui Pinto, who ran the Football Leaks website, and carried his denial that the documents were hacked or stolen. In January, Pinto was arrested near his home in Budapest and now faces extradition to Portugal for alleged “extortion, violation of secrecy and illegally accessing information”, not related to the City “leaks” which he denies.

[Mr K]

A few thoughts about this.

1. FFP is rigged to enable the established elite to keep their noses in the trough, we all know that. However City signed up to these rules when they did their deal with UEFA. The "moral" course probably would have been to say to UEFA at the time "Fuck you, these rules are illegal and anti-competitive - see you in court" but we didn't. That being the case, if we failed to disclose any relevant info, and failed to include in the agreement a clause for any other misdemeanours to have been taken into consideration, known or unknown, then that is rank incompetence from City and heads should roll.

2. I sincerely hope all these leaks are fabricated/manipulated, but I suspect they are not. Does everyone here wear such blue-tinted specs that they think it is inconceivable that we systematically broke the rules? We wouldn't be the first multinational company or football club to have done so, and certainly not the last. Obviously the emails themselves are not proof that we actually did all the things suggested, and I am not sure there is a "smoking gun" from the leaks I have seen, but it don't look good. If any of it is true then the club have been stupid and arrogant, and as I said previously, those responsible should be reprimanded or sacked. If the instructions came from the top, well, we are fucked.

3. Then there is the Sancho business - might we end up with a transfer ban?

4. I am pretty sanguine about all of this, we have had a great few years and seen the best team ever to grace the Premier League. None of these allegations really take away from our achievements IMO.
Also, we are City, we will endure, and if we get banned from Europe, so be it (best win it this year then, lads), and if we get a transfer ban, then again, it will be interesting to see how we cope. At least Phil will get a game. I reckon some of the stalwarts will stay with the club no matter what (Vinny, Spanish Dave, maybe even Kun for a while) and I know the fans will back the team more than ever.
It might even be a good thing, to stop thinking of the club as a global presence and focus a little bit more on being MANCHESTER City.

5. TL:DR We are City - fuck 'em all, we will endure!

[KunDB]

Re 1 above, I think it was a verbal agreement to make the problem go away, not a legal agreement of any kind. In return for City dropping the threat of legal action through the courts a fine was agreed and imposed (with a massive payback of it later). UEFA under a new head are seeking to backtrack unjustly.

Re 2, yes it is possible City broke rules, rules that were hugely unfair and rigged against them.

Re 3, no clue but all clubs do or have done this type of under the counter deal.

The simple fact is this information was stolen by a hack, maybe even from UEFA, as City had provided them with all their relevant data. In my mind it is no coincidence that when City are threatening a unique quadruple that FIFA, UEFA, PL and FA are all simultaneously threatening an investigation of the club. Almost certainly a coordinated attempt to disrupt City ata critical time; City the 'unwelcome intruders' who have broken into and disrupted their preferred elite group of CL clubs (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Utd, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, etc.).   

The same thing is happening to PSg and Chelsea have been banned for two transfer windows for alleged wrong doing that the favoured Spanish clubs were able to appeal and have delayed to mitigate the effect of the ban (even if Chelsea appeal the ban is enforced during the year plus the appeal will take to be heard). PSG and Chelsea also seen as outsider money funded disruptors of the preferred CL elite group of clubs.

[gavin]

FIFA not delaying the Chelsea ban is a dangerous game in itself. If FIFA were to lose appeals they could leave themselves open to big compensation claims.

I'd love to see the FA, UEFA and FIFA destroyed for good. All three are terrible organisations full of self serving wankers with no right to preach to City considering their own behaviour. As Mr K implied, we should really have contested FFP legally as strongly as possible in the beginning. I wouldn't be bothered about missing a season of the Chumps personally. However, we should fight the bastards till the end anyway.

[Mr K]

Gavin - I am with you 100% there! UEFA and FIFA are as corrupt as they come, whilst the FA is almost as dodgy, and hypocritical to boot. Remember when we lost the World Cup to Qatar and the FA started bleating about bribes etc and how unfair it all was? It then transpired that the FA had also tried bribing the FIFA voters with "gifts" - but the FA's gift were a bit shit. A bunch of two-faced lying useless old men.

[Gareth]

While agreeing with all the stuff about corrupt governance, I'm still despondent about all this shit. Like many other fans, I care more about the league than about European competition - but I don't think it's the same for elite level players and managers. Would we be able to retain the services of Pep and many of the current team under a CL ban? Seems unlikely to me. How would we attract players at the same level? Or at all if there was a transfer ban at the same time? What would the owners make of all this?
The timing of the 'case', based on the use of hacked information, seems designed to disrupt during the crucial part of this season as well as to put a long-term brake on City's progress. I've supported City up and down the leagues and that'll continue. But I doubt we will be able to continue competing at the top level if FIFA, UEFA and the FA decide they don't want us to.

[KunDB]

Well if they take action we can only hope City drag them through the courts. FFP is fine in principle but UEFA and the elite clubs corrupted it making it less about FFP more about restriction of trade. Anti-competitive practices.

[KunDB]

You need clean hands before you investigate others, FIFA have severely dirty hands.

Story Link   Qatar World Cup 2022: Damian Collins urges Fifa to investigate bid claims

Real story in Sunday Times behind a paywall.

Fifa has been urged to conduct an investigation into allegations Qatar offered football's world governing body $400m (£307m) three weeks before the Gulf state was awarded the 2022 World Cup.

The Sunday Times claims executives from Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera signed a television contract prior to the bid.

The newspaper claims to have seen leaked documents that show the alleged deal included a fee of $100m (£77m) that would be paid into a designated Fifa account if Qatar was successful.

The Sunday Times also alleges Fifa was offered another payment of $480m (£368m) three years later.

[Gareth]

You need clean hands before you investigate others, FIFA have severely dirty hands.

That's as maybe, and I'm not disputing any of it. However I don't think it helps our case if our brief says, "The people bringing the case against us are a corrupt load of bastards, M'lud." Even if it's true. When you're on trial in a mafia court, they make the rules. My only grounds for optimism is that the owners have a big incentive to get in the best lawyers available, in order to protect their investment.

[gavin]

A ban for one year shouldn't be a massive problem for us with the players. Other clubs have failed to qualify for a year and not seen an exodus. I don't expect it to come to that though.

[Paddy]

It all comes down to hard proof either way...