City charged by UEFA over FFP along with PSG

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/news/10766475/Manchester-City-to-be-made-to-pay-a-high-price-for-spending-spree-under-Uefa-Financial-Fair-Play-rules.html

Well, it's time this whole fucking nonsense was tested. The comment in the article which made me laugh was this one:

Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea all confirmed they were not under investigation from European football’s governing body, having complied with its rule forbidding clubs making losses in excess of €45 million (£37.2  million) during the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons after certain exceptions are taken into account.

What exceptions are they????

We'll just have to wait and see what happens with this one. It'll be interesting to see which clubs are under potential sanction and who manages to dodge the bullet. My money's on PSG to avoid everything and we'll get battered with something.

Tell em to "fuck off and then go and spend another £200m in the summer. CL football?  So what, go on and win PL title after title, all the cups etc....others will follow suit until a new European/World Club Cup competition is formed.

Platini and his cronies will probably fine us...and where will that money go? Xmas drink & holiday fund for the bent fuckers at FIFA & UEFA...

We were always gonna be under investigation......FFP was brought in to stop clubs like us gate crashing the top table........In my humble opinion.....I see us getting a transfer imbargo.......they know a fine ain't gonna hurt us .....or anybody else for that.......but a stop on transfers will damage us a lot.......maybe even put us back outside of the top four next season just like the top teams want.....if it does......then at least we had a bit of fun whilst it lasted........

What about the dippers?  They posted bigger losses than us.

Total Joke.

We all know, we'll be the ones who are made an example of.

It says the punishments will probably either be a heavy fine or transfer embargo......my betting's on the latter.

Afterall, what's the point of a heavy fine, when we have the richest owners in the world.

Imo, this all boils down to pure jealousy....especially from the English clubs...as blue says, tell um to fuck off and go out and spend another £200m   

shakencity wrote:Afterall, what's the point of a heavy fine, when we have the richest owners in the world. 

To offset the TV rights losses that will inevitably occur now that Barca are out of the competition and their preferred final is one of the semis?

Not kidding... They'll be able to rake in big money to compensate for the loss of the big clubs that earn their TV rights and they know the Sheikh is a deep pocket to go picking from.

leopold wrote:

shakencity wrote:Afterall, what's the point of a heavy fine, when we have the richest owners in the world. 

To offset the TV rights losses that will inevitably occur now that Barca are out of the competition and their preferred final is one of the semis?

Not kidding...  They'll be able to rake in big money to compensate for the loss of the big clubs that earn their TV rights and they know the Sheikh is a deep pocket to go picking from.

Fair point.

Some facts (as I believe they are).

The exceptions I'm guessing are for things like youth academy, community work, stadium infrastructure etc. That helps us as well.

Sanctions (as written by UEFA) don't include a transfer embargo. Most likely outcome is a fine and a reprimand.

The telegraph article seems to focus on our deal with Etihad which our auditors say is an unrelated company. If it's good enough for the independent auditors, it should be good enough for the drongos down at UEFA.

We've bent over backwards to keep them onside so if they try and stiff us, we should just take them to court.

Anyway, isn't it wrong to leak stuff? Especially highly sensitive stuff? UEFA should spend some of their money on finding the culprit and sacking them.

I suspect this is a ploy by the Torygraph to unsettle us. I reckon they want the dippers to win the league, so they'd do this to get us to wobble just enough that any points they drop in their last four games won't hurt them.

All part of the backlash against the greedy Arabs, I guess. Except, given they've spent a bastard fortune and don't have all that much to show for it, you could argue that they're not all that greedy...

Didn't that ex-utd prick make a very public comment a few weeks ago regarding FFP and who was getting investigated.........there's the culprit.....the fcuking knob in charge of all this shit..

BREAKING NEWS.....UEFA have decided on city's punishment.........THEY ARENT ALLOWED TO SELL DZEKO.....a UEFA insider said of the punishment......"that'll fuckin teach em....!!!!.....now where's my bottle of Dom Pom..??"

Mainerdwasmychurch wrote:BREAKING NEWS.....UEFA have decided on city's punishment.........THEY ARENT ALLOWED TO SELL DZEKO.....a UEFA insider said of the punishment......"that'll fuckin teach em....!!!!.....now where's my bottle of Dom Pom..??"

  

Bluey will not be happy!

Let em try it then sue their arses for restriction of trade and whatever other charges we can think of, we can take out an injunction against any ban from Europe until it is resolved in the courts. I am sure our company lawyers have got all this figured out way in advance to cover all possible scenarios from the FFP investigation.

This could take years to resolve through the courts. Sometimes battles as big as this come down to who has the most expensive lawyers/who has the most money. I'm backing Sheikh Mansour rather than UEFA.

City cannot afford not to be in the CL when the money becomes mind boggling the season after next.

I can't see Platini being up for protracted battle in the courts with the Sheik's lawyers. How are Monaco escaping investigation? They have a tiny ground compared to ours and have spent £100m 's how are they able to satisfy the requirements of FFP? I cannot believe we are worse than them.

Monaco aren't in a UEFA competition yet.

leopold wrote:

Mainerdwasmychurch wrote:BREAKING NEWS.....UEFA have decided on city's punishment.........THEY ARENT ALLOWED TO SELL DZEKO.....a UEFA insider said of the punishment......"that'll fuckin teach em....!!!!.....now where's my bottle of Dom Pom..??"

  

Bluey will not be happy!

Fuck it...ban us from the CL....and sell Dzeko!  

Topdawg wrote:City cannot afford not to be in the CL when the money becomes mind boggling the season after next.

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about that! This means that we won't get a fine, we'll get a transfer ban, with the hope that we don't make the top four at the end of next season and be out of the CL, so we're forever struggling against the massive funding.

I bet they're loving having Liverpool back in Europe, five times winners and all...

More info on the issue and the options available:

Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser al-Khelaifi has insisted they have not broken any of Uefa's Financial Fair Play rules.
Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain are among the European clubs who will learn this week whether they are deemed to be in serious breach of Uefa's financial fair play rules.
The Club Financial Control Body's (CFCB) investigatory chamber, headed by the former Belgium prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, is to meet on Tuesday and Wednesday to consider the cases of 76 clubs. Those considered to have committed serious breaches of Uefa's break-even rules will be referred to the CFCB's adjudicatory panel for a final verdict, with Uefa to announce details of all sanctions around 5 May. The sanctions could include being barred from European competition.

Manchester City, who have lost £149m in the past two seasons, and PSG are both understood to be among the 76 clubs under investigation.

The CFCB panel will have four options open to them: to dismiss the case; to agree a settlement with the club effectively putting them on probation; to issue a reprimand and fine of up to €100,000; or in serious cases to refer the club to the adjudicatory chamber. The clubs should therefore know their position, and how much they have to fear, by the end of the week.

PSG are believed to be most at risk – the Qatari-owned club effectively wiped out its annual losses of €130m by announcing a back-dated sponsorship deal with the Qatar Tourism Authority. As it is a deal with a related party, however, the French club will have to convince Uefa the deal is a fair market value.

The French newspaper L'Equipe reported last month that Uefa officials found the Paris club's officials "a bit haughty" in the discussions over FFP, but that Manchester City had been more convincing. The PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi insisted in January the sponsorship deal was not creative accounting.
He said: "Our contract with Qatar Tourism Authority is not some accounting trick. It's the same contract we have with Emirates. There's no reason for Uefa to disagree. Everything is legal. Our lawyers are very competent."

Clubs can lose up to €45m (£37m) over the last two years under Uefa's rules. City made losses of £97.9m in 2012 and £51.6m last year, but can write off sums spent on facilities, youth development and a number of other items.

Other top English clubs have little to fear, with the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United being in the black in both years. Chelsea made a £49.4m loss last year but made a £1.4million profit in 2012 so will comply. Liverpool and other clubs such as Monaco, who are not playing in Europe this season, will not have to pass the FFP rules until next autumn, with any sanctions applicable in 2015.
Liverpool last month announced losses of £49.8m up to the end of May 2013, and a further £40.5m over the previous 10 months. Uefa confirmed it would announce any decisions at the start of next month.
A statement said: "Uefa does not provide any details about clubs' ongoing investigations as part of the monitoring process, nor will it comment on correspondence between the CFCB and clubs. Uefa will only communicate once decisions have been taken by the CFCB investigatory chamber, which we anticipate will happen at the beginning of May."
Clubs can appeal against any decision to the court of arbitration for sport.

Interesting website below:

http://www.financialfairplay.co.uk/

Read further down the website...some good reads on United, City and Liverpool.

what gets me when all said & done is the fact that, if I chose to buy a business I would be mighty pissed off if I was told by anyone that I was not allowed to invest my money in my business or, use my family's money if it was at my disposal. what right have they got to say what you can and cant earn. How much profit & loss you  can make. In business everyone has to speculate to accumulate.

How can we be held back seeing as we have no debt, and Uniturd is paying millions weekly in interest on borrowings.  Just because it is not a football based debt. Bollocks it was money that bought the bloody football club.

I don't see why clubs (such as Monaco and Liverpool) can fall foul of FFP right now but still be allowed into UEFA competitions (such as CL). How can that be fair? You don't currently comply but, because you aren't playing in a UEFA competition at the moment, you can play next year. What a load of smelly old bollocks that is.

City will write off at least £30M on youth stuff over the two years and there's plenty more that is allowable under FFP.

The main thing for city is that we are demonstrating that we will hit the targets and are moving in the right direction. £98M loss down to £52M loss.

Next accounts we'll have the new tv deal worth an extra £30M minimum to us. With a few new sponsorship deals and a few off our books (like Micah, GazBaz, Lezza and maybe Boyata, Rodwell etc.) we'll knock off about £300K pw in wages (£15M) which I'm sure we'll use when we buy a few new players this summer.

I'm expecting us to be close to break even next accounts and, if we are still in the CL the year after that, we'll be in healthy profits and everyone can go and do one.

and money that UEFA and FIFA officials took in bribes.

I totally agree - where is the 'fair market' for a company that hasn't borrowed a penny - compared to another few that have?

Just tell em to fuck themselves - and along with Barca, we'll create our own 'elite world club trophy' tournament - and UEFA can keep the fuck out of it.

City and PSG are very easy targets for UEFA. Some of the 'elite' European clubs are up in anger purely because they won't be getting the cash cow of CL footy (look at Arsenal for next year for instance). They are also unhappy because they perceive the likes of City and PSG of pushing transfer fees ever higher and player wages too. They deem that to be unaffordable (by unaffordable read less profits).

But have a look at which clubs have been breaking transfer fee records - Madrid and Barca for starters, closely followed by Utd. and Chelsea. Look at which clubs are paying top whack wages (Utd. Madrid, Barca etc.). It's certainly not city that are causing this price inflation.

With the new upstarts out of the way, the old elite can carry on drinking the milk that the cash cow provides. It's wrong.

whats happening with the PL Dawg?

Surely our Legal team already have the answers..

PL??? prediction league or premier league?

sorry Dawg...there's another round of games tonight.

Platini and his cronies talk about us:

Platini keeps UEFA anthem in the family


+13
Composer: Yohann Zveig got the commission to write the Europa League anthem

Manchester City’s links to Etihad, the main airline of Abu Dhabi, may have fallen foul of financial fair play regulations. How convenient that not all family connections are viewed with such forensic  suspicion at UEFA.
Take the case of Yohann Zveig, a little-known composer from Paris.

Think of how many exceptionally gifted musicians there are in the world, yet Zveig was lucky enough to get the commission to write the Europa League anthem in 2009.
He then composed a separate piece for the final ceremony of the competition in 2010. And again in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

UEFA say Zveig won the tender from a shortlist of 22 candidates.
What a happy coincidence, then, that he also happens to be son-in-law of UEFA president Michel Platini.

Some pre-existing ties are obviously  more palatable to UEFA’s boss than others.

Since yesterday I have given this subject a bit if thought.....and I can tell you it really hurt..!!!
Anyway.......my thoughts turned towards us possibly getting a fine, a slapped wrist and a suspended harsher penalty......but only if found guilty of breaching their rules......
This may be a little naive of me but these rules will be in place for the foreseeable future and possibly decades.......UEFA have no idea what will happen when they slap teams with big punishments so it will be a learning curve for them as well.......inevitably big punishments now for any club will end up in court.......and there are at least 20 clubs up for some sort of punishment........the investigation periods UEFA are using last 2 years therefore it seems logical that every 2 years punishments will be dished out. If UEFA hit hard now then they will be setting their own precedence that they will have to follow in future years as a minimum and that means big court cases possibly every two years by multiple clubs.......and if those cases go in long enough then they could potentially be fighting court cases all of the time when the next round if punishments are dished out........and these court cases could involve other clubs who have passed the FFP regs and feel the punishments were too lenient..!!!!!
With all that in mind, if UEFA go any further than a slap on the wrists and a further suspended harsh punishment for those clubs that can show they are trending towards compliance then they are bigger fools than we already think of them. As all clubs involved will have lots of their own clever lawyers not just ours or indeed PSG.

Is anyone really surprised by this blue?

no, but it just goes to show, as did the WC voting, that they are clearly NOT self regulating effectively.

If we look at what's happened since the big furore over Jack Warner...he seems to have been the fall guy, or the only person that was left out to dry by FIFA.

With regards to MRWMC comments; I would hope that our lawyers, plus those of other clubs, have compiled plenty of evidence on how UEFA go about their business dealings and how they seem to be able to circumnavigate their own 'official' rules and regulations on 'transparency'. Clearly, this latest revelation of Platini's son-in-law gaining contract after contract is only the tip of the iceberg of dodgy dealings, back-handers, favourably given contracts.

I hate to say it, but I've got a bad feeling about what's about to happen.

I think we will be slapped with a transfer embargo for the coming season or possibly, they will apply the 'player' rule whereby we have to reduce our European squad by the bottom line deficit that breached the FFP....which our case could be as much as £35-£50m.

That's not player transfer costs, that's in wages....now that could be as many as 6 or 7 top earning players not being eligible for the CL next season and that is not 'attractive' to players like Silva, Aguero, Yaya, Nasri etc etc.

Even if our lawyers submit an appeal, then this will be heard 5 days latter at the Court of Arbitration for Sport - their decision will be final and if upheld, cannot be challenged further.

From what I've read on FFP, there is no European ruling for Employment Law that can be breached when it comes to this and even if City and others challenged it, the chances are, we'd be eliminated from the CL until such time as the appeal has been reviewed and completed, which as we know, UEFA could throw into the courts for years...only, IF they were confident that they would win, otherwise a massive law suit would surely follow from the clubs involved.

I am just thankful that PSG seem to have stuck two fingers up to UEFA which hasn't made them look very good in UEFA's eyes, whereby, we seemed to have been more co-operative and demonstrated that we are wanting and trying to comply with FFP....and fingers crossed, that MAY just see us with a fine and a slap on the wrist. Either way, I'm worried of the impact of the outcome on our future dealings.

It's no wonder we are looking at getting the likes of Lezza and Barry off the wage bill, and possibly Micah for that matter. All 3 must be on close to £300k pw and that's £15m over the season.
However, talks of Mangalla etc...will take 50% of that saving away, therefore, I can see us reducing our squad significantly come the summer and adding more EDS players like Lopes and Huws, maybe even bringing Rekik back to the club.

You could well be right their bluey.......one of the big fears for me is that there will be an ex-utd twat banging his fists hard on the table demanding harsh penalties for us seeing we dared to challenge their divine right to win everything.......and utd were amongst the teams demanding these regulations........that knob will take great pride in seeing us suffer.

Just read a piece that Ian Ladyman wrote last night. Some of his comments mirror what you've just said:

Manchester City are becoming increasingly nervous that they will be one of the first major European clubs to be found in breach of UEFA’s financial fair play rules.

European football’s governing body examined the finances of about 20 clubs who they feel need close examination with regards to FFP. That process - which also includes Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain - is expected to continue on Wednesday.

Though City were confident when they released their latest annual figures at the end of January that they had done enough to squeeze the right side of UEFA’s guidelines, they have become less certain over recent weeks.


Officials at the world’s richest football club are unsure about how UEFA view their attempts to add extra revenue streams to their vast business in the last 12 months and are awaiting news with some trepidation.

If City are found to be in breach, they are likely to be fined rather than banned from European competition.

UEFA have indicated all along that they are likely to look favourably on clubs who have made genuine efforts to reduce their losses when it comes to deciding on punishment. City certainly fall into this category, having cut their annual deficit from £98million to £52m over the course of the last two financial years.

Part of that has come through reining in their transfer spending, which has fallen since 2011, when they set a club record with the £38m signing of Sergio Aguero.

Nevertheless, if City were to fail the test it would represent a blow to their reputation and would be an enormous disappointment, given the extraordinary lengths they have gone to in a bid to comply.

City’s official stance yesterday was that they have received no indication from UEFA as regards what may happen.

Nevertheless, at the heart of the club’s anxiety is UEFA’s investigation into City’s unusual decision to sell £24.5m worth of player image rights to an external company. That has never been done before by a leading English club and the interest in the manoeuvre has been heightened by the fact City have declined to reveal the company’s identity.


City are also aware that UEFA are examining the way in which the club raised £22.45m from selling their intellectual property rights to outside parties. It is thought this figure includes charging affiliate clubs New York City FC and Manchester Ladies FC for the use of City’s scouting and commercial services.

Finally, UEFA are known to be looking at the structure and market value of the 10-year, £350m deal City struck with Etihad in 2011 to sponsor their stadium, shirts and new training complex.

City are confident that everything they have done to reduce the losses created by the colossal spending of the last five-and-a-half years is above board and able to withstand the most rigorous examination. If they are found in breach of FFP, they may well appeal.

Once UEFA’s club financial control body have met this week they will write to clubs telling them they have passed or failed and offering those in breach a punishment or ‘settlement’.

The clubs will then have until April 30 to accept the sanction or appeal. UEFA would expect to deal with any appeals by May 5 but the matter could in theory drag on all summer if affected clubs appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

UEFA’s FFP guidelines say clubs must keep losses to an aggregate of £37.2m over the 2011-12 and  2012-13 seasons and although City’s figure stands at £149.5m, the regulations contain two significant loopholes for clubs looking to prove they are making concerted efforts to reduce their losses.


The first is that any club who reduce their deficit between the last two seasons are allowed to write off the wages of any player signed before 2010.
Any spending on youth development, infrastructure and community projects over the past two years’ accounts is also deductible for FFP purposes.
UEFA president Michel Platini, who has driven FFP from its inception, has spoken publicly about throwing clubs out of European competition if they fail the tests but the truth is that UEFA only intend to apply this to repeat offenders.
One further issue that City will also be aware of, though, is that other European clubs can appeal if they think their rivals’ finances have not been examined properly.
Teams like Manchester United and Arsenal, for example, are keen that UEFA implement the rules as stringently as they said they would when FFP was first launched five years ago.

AND HERE'S WHY WE HAVE TO REDUCE OUR WAGE BILL:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-2604978/Manchester-City-global-sports-salary-list-ahead-New-York-Yankees-Los-Angeles-Dodgers-Chelsea-Arsenal-Liverpool-Manchester-United.html

The American guy who headed up the case for Bosman  has said what uefa are doing is illegal and should not stand up in court he felt confident a challenge would see uefa have to ratify the rulings & criterion quite drastically. I also remember reading something from Martin samuels along the same vain. If this is the case surely clubs who may think they would come up for scrutiny wouldv'e  taken that on board.

You'd think so.

Maybe we're being quiet to spring a surprise on UEFA if they do dish out a harsh punishment?

I think the board would like this to be kept low-key where possible as this fits in with the club profile, so are hoping it's a slap on the wrist and a warning for next season.

However, the club haven't shed any light so far on the 'image' rights and 'intellectual property' that reduced our debt from £52m to £0. Again, maybe they are confident this will be OK when scrutinised?

Maybe further proof:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/5571618/Edin-Dzeko-set-to-discuss-contract-with-Man-City.html

arrrgghhh!!!!!! 

Yeah but they maybe reducing his wages from 150k/pw to 20p and a can o sprite  

No...a can of spite is what I'll have if he stays! 

blueboy wrote:
From what I've read on FFP, there is no European ruling for Employment Law that can be breached when it comes to this and even if City and others challenged it, the chances are, we'd be eliminated from the CL until such time as the appeal has been reviewed and completed, which as we know, UEFA could throw into the courts for years...only, IF they were confident that they would win, otherwise a massive law suit would surely follow from the clubs involved.

Surely we would be allowed to carry on in the CL if we qualify until any appeal has been heard? This is surely a fundamental right of law that you are innocent until proven guilty, while under appeal there has been no final ruling on whether we are guilty or not so how can we be punished by being banned from the CL until the result of the appeal is known?

I was just putting it our there MCM...I honestly have no idea what's going to happen...but nothing would surprise me with the fools at UEFA.

UEFA are giving clubs 10 days to lodge an appeal and they expect  things to be concluded well before the season starts.

From what I read on Monday, a transfer embargo isn't one of the sanctions for breaching FFP.

I think I read (on Wikipedia) that they could NOT implement transfer embargos. There are supposed to be 76 clubs under scrutiny.  Can't see that they won't take into consideration the year to year improvements.

We will be fine. Honestly.

meltonblue wrote:We will be fine. Honestly.

I do love your optimism Melton.  

fucking disgraceful. that's all i've got to say.

meltonblue wrote:Ditto blueboy. I don't give a shit about FFP at this current moment!


We will be fine though, I'll post why tomorrow when I'm in a better mood.