UEFA Ban & Fine

So what's everyone's views?
I've already had my bellyful of sanctimonius Rag & Scouse bastards gloating over the news 

Most know-nothing dipshit opposition fans seem to believe the Uefa verdict is final, when the truth is we won’t know what punishment, if any, there is until after the CAS appeal. Uefa and the established elite clubs have achieved their first objective though, by further damaging our global brand. My guess is the 2 year ban is so it can be halved on appeal, but this will still obviously affect any potential signings this summer. Not the end of the world if THB, Doyle and Braaf are promoted to the 1st team squad and Foden and Garcia get more game time. Best-case scenario is City’s legal team get the whole thing overturned, but I can’t say I’m confident of that. Would love us to win the CL, but wouldn’t miss it for a season.

I see they are now also gunning for a league points deduction / relegation too. Please let that happen because they then can't ignore the darling dippers also failing FFP then which was ignored as they were not in Europe. I hope we drag this through every court in the land for years. Goes to CAS and it's thrown out like PSG, 40m a year for 10 years is a good business deal. United get that for their training tops FFS. It's a mafia cartel we dared to join without an invitation.

When the guy who's heading up the investigation tells everybody the sanction the club's going to get before it's even started then you know somethings hookey!
Who set up these regulations? Fella called Platini I think. Wonder what happened to him? Oh, and didn't he have a son on the PSG board? Funny this all kicked off when that Gill fella went to YOOFA from united.
And people wonder why the anthem gets booed.

My belief is that UEFA either want CAS to halve the ban (and City to accept it) or chuck it out completely. Then they can go to the 'super elite' clubs and tell them they did their best. They surely don't want it to go to an external court and that could, potentially, finish them off.

BBC Sport article has pretty much written City off - with Pep leaving and Aguero etc., to not renew contracts.  As someone else said on JA 606 - think we should wait and see what happens after the appeal.  Think UEFA has it in for us don't they?

It's all overblown BS clickbait from the BBC.

Bolt from the blue podcast

https://soundcloud.com/michael-long-948043483/bftb-special-ceferins-last-stand

And so it begins, I've unfollowed every football news feed on any platform I have, tried to engage with a few yesterday and it's even more toxic than last year. This really is the only football platform I'm happy with. This isn't me just being soft either I'm not like that, I just don't see the point. The news yesterday about Caroline Flack is the case in point, toxic, vitriolic trolling is the new norm and seems to just be accepted, there is no constructed reasoning on any platform so I just won't bother.

Well said.

In years to come people will realise that the social media chant of ‘it brings people together’, will be seen to be the complete opposite. Divisions and damage will already be done by then

Once heard the internet described as ‘the portal to hell’ and that is becoming more prophetic every day. I love talking football with fans of other teams, but I wouldn’t dream of trying that on the internet, you’d end up being trolled by a 14 year old in Torquay with a name something like KloppsEuroWankFest. It’s simply not worth it.
And I agree when the Caroline Flack tragedy was mentioned, that harassment and abuse now seems to be acceptable and even expected. Funnily enough, her name came up with a colleague at work last week, and he said he first met her around 7 or 8 years ago, and it was clear that she had major addiction problems even then. She was a tragedy waiting to happen and yet within an hour of her death people were in the pub sharing online ‘jokes’ about it. Fucking disgraceful (apologies for my language Wensdi).
This forum remains a space for balanced opinion from decent people, long may that continue.

Spot on with the Caroline Flack reference there. Platforms such as TalkSport ought to learn a valuable lesson from that tragedy, but they won’t. They’ll continue to spout deliberately provocative garbage designed purely to provoke outrage. Journos will continue to make equally provocative comments on social media in a desperate quest for ‘likes’, and one day there will inevitably be terrible consequences as a result. But nobody will be held accountable. I’m at the point where I’ll even watch a foreign stream so I don’t have to listen to the commentary and punditry. Sadly, none of this will go away, even if CAS overturn Uefa’s decision.

It really worries me with how our kids now live their lives online. My youngest is 17 and hopefully is grounded but I still worry. She is very like me and isn't bothered if people dislike her, but for some it must be unbearable. I've not listened to 1 second of talk sport for a year and no regrets there. 5 Live sport is starting to bug me with the dipper love in and the minute they involve the public for a phone it goes off, because they are starting to go down the click bait route for shock value. I hope we have hit watershed here though, but roll on next season for dipper fest and CAS gate to be over whatever the outcome.

Obviously the news on Saturday morning that I woke up to here in oz was a bit of a shock. I then started to get calls from mates acquaintances etc all giving me a bit of a dig. I just replied enjoy it while you can as every dog has its day. knowing a lot more of the ins and outs than they do (because city is my interest) I am confident of an outcome sooner rather than later in city's favour.  I don't bother with facebook, twitter
, Instagram or whatever as it seems to rile normal straight thinking adults and turn some of them into screaming Morons. It is like roadrage on a keyboard. I cant be bothered with it. I read 606, love the Liverpool board as they are nearly all a bunch of class A Wankers. Their lack of Knowledge is far more amusing than the humour they think they are serving up. Wait till City are exonerated. They will be in total meltdown. Cant wait for that day, Not to comment but to gloat.

I think Topdawg's analysis is fairly accurate. The club will pursue this to the end. If it does mean the civil courts eventually, then YouHateFa will have to defend against a fair case for restriction of trade and discrimination. That's when the fun will start. Can see the Bosman case as being nothing to that.

Social media can be such a horrible place at times. People just casually come out with 'nonce' and worse to people they don't know and have never interacted with over the most trivial of things. 

I've been called all sorts of disgusting things on twitter and they just let lots if it ride. And always by faceless people. Twitter are a problem themselves because they also rely on activity and interaction in their platform.

Luckily I have been in the states for the past week and I have been spared the nasty vitriol that I have no doubt the media and the keyboard warriors have been throwing In  our direction.

What I do find amazing is that uefa conveniently forgot their own deadlines for action against PSG...that was lucky for Platini,  yet persue us relentlessly.

I agree with everything said earlier in this thread, but would add I would be disappointed if these allegations actually prove to be true. If however we are exonerated we should sue uefa for every penny they have.

The interesting thing for me now is, if the ban is upheld (and my guess is that it will be, but reduced to 1 season), what will Pep do?
I think this is what he will ultimately be remembered for. He has this reputation for being a ‘cheque book manager’, whatever that means, as I don’t know if a single successful manager that never bought players. And as soon as this blew up the headlines screamed that he will jump ship within a heartbeat to win the champions league elsewhere. Well what an opportunity to prove everybody wrong.
I don’t judge people on how they perform when things are going well, to me it’s more telling how they react in adversity. Forget the recent trophies, the records, the 7-0’s, the centurions season, to me if Pep stays whilst we’re excluded from the most corrupt competition in the world, then that is what I will remember him for.
And that goes for the players too. All the money, adulation and success they have heaped on them in the past few years will be worth nothing if they abandon the club and fans because of some corrupt UEFA ruling.
This is a watershed moment in the club’s history. People will either be remembered as heroes or turncoats.

You have something there TBW, wasn't thinking about it like that, I just assumed Pep was gone.  That will be very interesting.  If I was a betting man from the key personnel

1. Pep - gone
2. Ederson - Stays
3. Laporte -  Stays
4. KDB - Stays (really hope this is true he is the man of legends)
5. Mahrez - Stays
6. Sterling - Leaves (Always think he is looking for more)
7. Sane - gone gone gone
8. Sergio - Will see out contract
9. Jesus - Stays

Peps staying 

No one's going anywhere.

Sometimes, people get really pissed off. Sometimes, some people say...right I'll show you...you feckin' feckers!

I would hope that we've moved into that territory.

If anybody wants to leave so be it, I’d rather have people that are fighting for the cause.
It’s at times like these that I think: what would Mike Doyle have done?

As Stated I think most will stay Gone are the ones we know or we are fairly sure will be released.

Gone in my opinion: D.Silva, Otamendi, Sane

Possible: Aguero

I say possible for Aguero mainly due to the fact he is coming up to the last year or two of his contract. He is probably about to start to wane a wee bit and has probably 1 to 2 years left at an elite club. If he is still missing a champs league medal after this season? and we are banned for the next 2 seasons? I can see him leaving for a club where he has a chance of getting that medal.

Other than that I cant see any one else leaving bear in mind most are tied up to long contracts.

Aguero has already played in La Liga and i can see him signing for his last couple of seasons with Real or Barca but i would hope he would return the fans loyalty and see out his contract.

Impressive statement from the club CEO today saying the allegations are simply not true. If this the case, Uefa’s FFP panel are in a whole heap of trouble. Most opposition fans won’t realise it, but this could end up being the best thing that’s ever happened to European football if CAS overturn this completely.

Absolutely loving the club’s response. I really feel that the corrupt UEFA mafia have started a fight with the wrong club, which could have far reaching consequences for their cosy cartel.

We wll fight tooth and nail to be exonerated but corrupt UEFA will also fight as hard. Now they have laid the challenge down they wont want to look foolish and impotent over this as it could be the future of FFP and even UEFA at stake. They cant even back down and just give us a fine coz that will also make them look impotent so it's either a 1/2 yr ban or absolutely nothing in my view.

If we end up with a one year ban, I've no doubt we're taking it through the courts. Even if we get off at CAS (due to procedural failure at UEFA), I can see the club wanting to take on UEFA in the courts because of 'reputational damage'.

I hope that the club do take them through the court over the legality of FFP and the way it is selectively implemented against certain clubs but not others.
It would never be allowed to prevent advancement in any other business in this way, clear restriction of trade.

The up side to this situation is that it seems to have galvanised the club and fans into a collective defiance and resilience.
Reading all the interviews from inside and outside of the club this week harks back to the old days of being a City fan, when adversity just spurred us on.