City Launch Legal Challenge Against PL Charges & Barrister

[john@staustell]

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/f ... s-28725301

[nottsblue]

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/embarrassing-situation-ian-wright-highlights-28725301

Does he not realise that our charges and Everton’s relate to different things

[john@staustell]

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/embarrassing-situation-ian-wright-highlights-28725301

Does he not realise that our charges and Everton’s relate to different things

The point is the PL made an absolute dogs dinner of a relatively simple case, with a club who have one part time lawyer. He's suggesting that City group, with 30 full time lawyers and barristers, will have them for breakfast

[patrickblue]

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/embarrassing-situation-ian-wright-highlights-28725301

Does he not realise that our charges and Everton’s relate to different things

The point is the PL made an absolute dogs dinner of a relatively simple case, with a club who have one part time lawyer. He's suggesting that City group, with 30 full time lawyers and barristers, will have them for breakfast

I don't think he's wrong either.

[johnny crossan]

Premier League’s financial rules are broken, says Crystal Palace co-owner

John Textor says it makes no sense that billionaires face limits on what they can spend to improve their clubs and believes that Nottingham Forest should not be deducted points for breaking rules

Martyn Ziegler
Chief Sports Reporter
Thursday February 29 2024, 7.00pm, The Times

Textor, Palace’s largest shareholder, said that the Premier League’s financial rules make it harder for the smaller clubs in the top flight to catch up with the largest teams
Crystal Palace’s largest shareholder John Textor has criticised the Premier League’s financial rules saying they prevent smaller clubs from competing against richer rivals.
The American businessman, who owns 45 per cent of Palace, said it was “not right” for Nottingham Forest to be docked points — Forest are facing a points deduction after accepting they breached Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) last season — and sympathised with the club’s owner Evangelos Marinakis.
Everton have already been docked six points and are facing another hearing for a PSR breach.
Asked about PSR, Textor said: “It’s clear that they’re built to make sure that clubs who do not drive significant revenues cannot catch up.
“It doesn’t matter if you have a billion dollars of cash in a wheelbarrow, you’re not allowed to spend it. Does that make any sense? Marinakis has plenty of money to fund his team but he’s not allowed to. If he spends too much and does what the fans want, somebody comes along and docks him points? That’s not right
“Financial Fair Play is a fraud of a term, to say it’s about sustainability. The sustainability issue is a fraudulent issue. Sustainability should be about the quality of your balance sheet, not ratios against your profit and loss. Nobody actually thinks that makes sense.
“If you have a billion pounds of cash and you’re sustainable — more sustainable than most clubs in the league — but you’re not allowed to spend this, everybody should be saying this, it doesn’t make sense.

Forest, who are owned by Marinakis, could be docked points after admitting breaking the league’s financial rules
“We have got three billionaires in our ownership group, maybe more. We’re not allowed to spend at the level of teams that are in the top six. Josh Harris has no trouble with money, he just bought an NFL team [the Washington Commanders], he owns the [Philadelphia] 76ers [basketball team]. But Steve [Parish, co-owner and chairman] is not allowed to go out and spend that kind of money, he gets docked points and sent to the second division.
“I’m just saying you cannot have a rule that says somebody who has the money is not allowed to spend it because their club isn’t big enough. Yet how do you get big ever?
Textor was speaking after addressing the FT Business of Football Summit in London, where he raised the issue of PSR, suggesting they may be anti-competitive.
He added: “I’ve got to somehow find a way to put Crystal Palace against Erling Haaland, and if you have an injury at Palace, you don’t get to pull a £15 million player off the bench, you’ve got to take someone from your academy, because you can’t afford to have that [£15 million] player on your bench. That is not sport. Is anyone really having fun with this? It’s broken.”

[zuricity]

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/embarrassing-situation-ian-wright-highlights-28725301

So that article quotes two idiot footballers, both of whom cannot speak or think correctly, IW 'finks' he cannot THINK.

The only thing that is certain is that the Lawyers for City are the best in the UK and they will pummel PL employees and others in a real court of law and not
this Kangaroo court the PL think they can get away with.

[zuricity]

Premier League’s financial rules are broken, says Crystal Palace co-owner

John Textor says it makes no sense that billionaires face limits on what they can spend to improve their clubs and believes that Nottingham Forest should not be deducted points for breaking rules

Martyn Ziegler
Chief Sports Reporter
Thursday February 29 2024, 7.00pm, The Times

Textor, Palace’s largest shareholder, said that the Premier League’s financial rules make it harder for the smaller clubs in the top flight to catch up with the largest teams
Crystal Palace’s largest shareholder John Textor has criticised the Premier League’s financial rules saying they prevent smaller clubs from competing against richer rivals.
The American businessman, who owns 45 per cent of Palace, said it was “not right” for Nottingham Forest to be docked points — Forest are facing a points deduction after accepting they breached Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) last season — and sympathised with the club’s owner Evangelos Marinakis.
Everton have already been docked six points and are facing another hearing for a PSR breach.
Asked about PSR, Textor said: “It’s clear that they’re built to make sure that clubs who do not drive significant revenues cannot catch up.
“It doesn’t matter if you have a billion dollars of cash in a wheelbarrow, you’re not allowed to spend it. Does that make any sense? Marinakis has plenty of money to fund his team but he’s not allowed to. If he spends too much and does what the fans want, somebody comes along and docks him points? That’s not right
“Financial Fair Play is a fraud of a term, to say it’s about sustainability. The sustainability issue is a fraudulent issue. Sustainability should be about the quality of your balance sheet, not ratios against your profit and loss. Nobody actually thinks that makes sense.
“If you have a billion pounds of cash and you’re sustainable — more sustainable than most clubs in the league — but you’re not allowed to spend this, everybody should be saying this, it doesn’t make sense.

Forest, who are owned by Marinakis, could be docked points after admitting breaking the league’s financial rules
“We have got three billionaires in our ownership group, maybe more. We’re not allowed to spend at the level of teams that are in the top six. Josh Harris has no trouble with money, he just bought an NFL team [the Washington Commanders], he owns the [Philadelphia] 76ers [basketball team]. But Steve [Parish, co-owner and chairman] is not allowed to go out and spend that kind of money, he gets docked points and sent to the second division.
“I’m just saying you cannot have a rule that says somebody who has the money is not allowed to spend it because their club isn’t big enough. Yet how do you get big ever?
Textor was speaking after addressing the FT Business of Football Summit in London, where he raised the issue of PSR, suggesting they may be anti-competitive.
He added: “I’ve got to somehow find a way to put Crystal Palace against Erling Haaland, and if you have an injury at Palace, you don’t get to pull a £15 million player off the bench, you’ve got to take someone from your academy, because you can’t afford to have that [£15 million] player on your bench. That is not sport. Is anyone really having fun with this? It’s broken.”

Pretty much like everything else in England, Broken . Potholes on the streets break your cars suspension and so on .

We've known from day one that the RAGS, Scouse and Arse tried to tie things up with guaranteed CL places, with lions share of Revenues. Yet this FFP BS persists in 2024 !

Freedom to invest in your Company is a fundamental right of business. Nobody gave a toss about Bury,

We are not talking about clubs laundering money from dubious sources. However, the way Rag fans and scousers go on, you would think that Money earned from the genuine sale of Oil , is dirty money being laundered. Pathetic.

It really is time to kick the US consortiums out of English football. Shame for the Palace owner , but they really are not needed,.

[johnny crossan]

Premier League’s financial rules are broken, says Crystal Palace co-owner

John Textor says it makes no sense that billionaires face limits on what they can spend to improve their clubs and believes that Nottingham Forest should not be deducted points for breaking rules

Martyn Ziegler
Chief Sports Reporter
Thursday February 29 2024, 7.00pm, The Times

Textor, Palace’s largest shareholder, said that the Premier League’s financial rules make it harder for the smaller clubs in the top flight to catch up with the largest teams
Crystal Palace’s largest shareholder John Textor has criticised the Premier League’s financial rules saying they prevent smaller clubs from competing against richer rivals.
The American businessman, who owns 45 per cent of Palace, said it was “not right” for Nottingham Forest to be docked points — Forest are facing a points deduction after accepting they breached Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) last season — and sympathised with the club’s owner Evangelos Marinakis.
Everton have already been docked six points and are facing another hearing for a PSR breach.
Asked about PSR, Textor said: “It’s clear that they’re built to make sure that clubs who do not drive significant revenues cannot catch up.
“It doesn’t matter if you have a billion dollars of cash in a wheelbarrow, you’re not allowed to spend it. Does that make any sense? Marinakis has plenty of money to fund his team but he’s not allowed to. If he spends too much and does what the fans want, somebody comes along and docks him points? That’s not right
“Financial Fair Play is a fraud of a term, to say it’s about sustainability. The sustainability issue is a fraudulent issue. Sustainability should be about the quality of your balance sheet, not ratios against your profit and loss. Nobody actually thinks that makes sense.
“If you have a billion pounds of cash and you’re sustainable — more sustainable than most clubs in the league — but you’re not allowed to spend this, everybody should be saying this, it doesn’t make sense.

Forest, who are owned by Marinakis, could be docked points after admitting breaking the league’s financial rules
“We have got three billionaires in our ownership group, maybe more. We’re not allowed to spend at the level of teams that are in the top six. Josh Harris has no trouble with money, he just bought an NFL team [the Washington Commanders], he owns the [Philadelphia] 76ers [basketball team]. But Steve [Parish, co-owner and chairman] is not allowed to go out and spend that kind of money, he gets docked points and sent to the second division.
“I’m just saying you cannot have a rule that says somebody who has the money is not allowed to spend it because their club isn’t big enough. Yet how do you get big ever?
Textor was speaking after addressing the FT Business of Football Summit in London, where he raised the issue of PSR, suggesting they may be anti-competitive.
He added: “I’ve got to somehow find a way to put Crystal Palace against Erling Haaland, and if you have an injury at Palace, you don’t get to pull a £15 million player off the bench, you’ve got to take someone from your academy, because you can’t afford to have that [£15 million] player on your bench. That is not sport. Is anyone really having fun with this? It’s broken.”

Pretty much like everything else in England, Broken . Potholes on the streets break your cars suspension and so on .

We've known from day one that the RAGS, Scouse and Arse tried to tie things up with guaranteed CL places, with lions share of Revenues. Yet this FFP BS persists in 2024 !

Freedom to invest in your Company is a fundamental right of business. Nobody gave a toss about Bury,

We are not talking about clubs laundering money from dubious sources. However, the way Rag fans and scousers go on, you would think that Money earned from the genuine sale of Oil , is dirty money being laundered. Pathetic.

It really is time to kick the US consortiums out of English football. Shame for the Palace owner , but they really are not needed,.

You're only allowed to complain about our potholes if you live here - you ever tried driving in the the good old USA btw - their potholes resemble the Grand Canyon

[zuricity]

Premier League’s financial rules are broken, says Crystal Palace co-owner

John Textor says it makes no sense that billionaires face limits on what they can spend to improve their clubs and believes that Nottingham Forest should not be deducted points for breaking rules

Martyn Ziegler
Chief Sports Reporter
Thursday February 29 2024, 7.00pm, The Times

Textor, Palace’s largest shareholder, said that the Premier League’s financial rules make it harder for the smaller clubs in the top flight to catch up with the largest teams
Crystal Palace’s largest shareholder John Textor has criticised the Premier League’s financial rules saying they prevent smaller clubs from competing against richer rivals.
The American businessman, who owns 45 per cent of Palace, said it was “not right” for Nottingham Forest to be docked points — Forest are facing a points deduction after accepting they breached Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) last season — and sympathised with the club’s owner Evangelos Marinakis.
Everton have already been docked six points and are facing another hearing for a PSR breach.
Asked about PSR, Textor said: “It’s clear that they’re built to make sure that clubs who do not drive significant revenues cannot catch up.
“It doesn’t matter if you have a billion dollars of cash in a wheelbarrow, you’re not allowed to spend it. Does that make any sense? Marinakis has plenty of money to fund his team but he’s not allowed to. If he spends too much and does what the fans want, somebody comes along and docks him points? That’s not right
“Financial Fair Play is a fraud of a term, to say it’s about sustainability. The sustainability issue is a fraudulent issue. Sustainability should be about the quality of your balance sheet, not ratios against your profit and loss. Nobody actually thinks that makes sense.
“If you have a billion pounds of cash and you’re sustainable — more sustainable than most clubs in the league — but you’re not allowed to spend this, everybody should be saying this, it doesn’t make sense.

Forest, who are owned by Marinakis, could be docked points after admitting breaking the league’s financial rules
“We have got three billionaires in our ownership group, maybe more. We’re not allowed to spend at the level of teams that are in the top six. Josh Harris has no trouble with money, he just bought an NFL team [the Washington Commanders], he owns the [Philadelphia] 76ers [basketball team]. But Steve [Parish, co-owner and chairman] is not allowed to go out and spend that kind of money, he gets docked points and sent to the second division.
“I’m just saying you cannot have a rule that says somebody who has the money is not allowed to spend it because their club isn’t big enough. Yet how do you get big ever?
Textor was speaking after addressing the FT Business of Football Summit in London, where he raised the issue of PSR, suggesting they may be anti-competitive.
He added: “I’ve got to somehow find a way to put Crystal Palace against Erling Haaland, and if you have an injury at Palace, you don’t get to pull a £15 million player off the bench, you’ve got to take someone from your academy, because you can’t afford to have that [£15 million] player on your bench. That is not sport. Is anyone really having fun with this? It’s broken.”

Pretty much like everything else in England, Broken . Potholes on the streets break your cars suspension and so on .

We've known from day one that the RAGS, Scouse and Arse tried to tie things up with guaranteed CL places, with lions share of Revenues. Yet this FFP BS persists in 2024 !

Freedom to invest in your Company is a fundamental right of business. Nobody gave a toss about Bury,

We are not talking about clubs laundering money from dubious sources. However, the way Rag fans and scousers go on, you would think that Money earned from the genuine sale of Oil , is dirty money being laundered. Pathetic.

It really is time to kick the US consortiums out of English football. Shame for the Palace owner , but they really are not needed,.

You're only allowed to complain about our potholes if you live here - you ever tried driving in the the good old USA btw - their potholes resemble the Grand Canyon

Yes, used to live in New Jersey down the garden state parkway in Red Bank, Clarence Clemens , Bruce , JB Jovi all from around there. They did too have bigger potholes, as everthing is bigger in the good ol' US of A.

Used to drive an old barge upto Exchange place and park there on the GSP, everybody in their pristine new cars got out of my way ! . Nobody ever nicked my big fat old v8 Buick, but i would come back to my car late afternoon and see Beemers and Mercs up on bricks , missing their wheels ! and that was in the paid for car parks ! Of course in downtown Manhattan, the pot holes were even bigger ! My nice new Volvo and Honda , never visited Manhattan.

[johnny crossan]

Premier League’s financial rules are broken, says Crystal Palace co-owner

John Textor says it makes no sense that billionaires face limits on what they can spend to improve their clubs and believes that Nottingham Forest should not be deducted points for breaking rules

Martyn Ziegler
Chief Sports Reporter
Thursday February 29 2024, 7.00pm, The Times

Textor, Palace’s largest shareholder, said that the Premier League’s financial rules make it harder for the smaller clubs in the top flight to catch up with the largest teams
Crystal Palace’s largest shareholder John Textor has criticised the Premier League’s financial rules saying they prevent smaller clubs from competing against richer rivals.
The American businessman, who owns 45 per cent of Palace, said it was “not right” for Nottingham Forest to be docked points — Forest are facing a points deduction after accepting they breached Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) last season — and sympathised with the club’s owner Evangelos Marinakis.
Everton have already been docked six points and are facing another hearing for a PSR breach.
Asked about PSR, Textor said: “It’s clear that they’re built to make sure that clubs who do not drive significant revenues cannot catch up.
“It doesn’t matter if you have a billion dollars of cash in a wheelbarrow, you’re not allowed to spend it. Does that make any sense? Marinakis has plenty of money to fund his team but he’s not allowed to. If he spends too much and does what the fans want, somebody comes along and docks him points? That’s not right
“Financial Fair Play is a fraud of a term, to say it’s about sustainability. The sustainability issue is a fraudulent issue. Sustainability should be about the quality of your balance sheet, not ratios against your profit and loss. Nobody actually thinks that makes sense.
“If you have a billion pounds of cash and you’re sustainable — more sustainable than most clubs in the league — but you’re not allowed to spend this, everybody should be saying this, it doesn’t make sense.

Forest, who are owned by Marinakis, could be docked points after admitting breaking the league’s financial rules
“We have got three billionaires in our ownership group, maybe more. We’re not allowed to spend at the level of teams that are in the top six. Josh Harris has no trouble with money, he just bought an NFL team [the Washington Commanders], he owns the [Philadelphia] 76ers [basketball team]. But Steve [Parish, co-owner and chairman] is not allowed to go out and spend that kind of money, he gets docked points and sent to the second division.
“I’m just saying you cannot have a rule that says somebody who has the money is not allowed to spend it because their club isn’t big enough. Yet how do you get big ever?
Textor was speaking after addressing the FT Business of Football Summit in London, where he raised the issue of PSR, suggesting they may be anti-competitive.
He added: “I’ve got to somehow find a way to put Crystal Palace against Erling Haaland, and if you have an injury at Palace, you don’t get to pull a £15 million player off the bench, you’ve got to take someone from your academy, because you can’t afford to have that [£15 million] player on your bench. That is not sport. Is anyone really having fun with this? It’s broken.”

Pretty much like everything else in England, Broken . Potholes on the streets break your cars suspension and so on .

We've known from day one that the RAGS, Scouse and Arse tried to tie things up with guaranteed CL places, with lions share of Revenues. Yet this FFP BS persists in 2024 !

Freedom to invest in your Company is a fundamental right of business. Nobody gave a toss about Bury,

We are not talking about clubs laundering money from dubious sources. However, the way Rag fans and scousers go on, you would think that Money earned from the genuine sale of Oil , is dirty money being laundered. Pathetic.

It really is time to kick the US consortiums out of English football. Shame for the Palace owner , but they really are not needed,.

You're only allowed to complain about our potholes if you live here - you ever tried driving in the the good old USA btw - their potholes resemble the Grand Canyon

Yes, used to live in New Jersey down the garden state parkway in Red Bank, Clarence Clemens , Bruce , JB Jovi all from around there. They did too have bigger potholes, as everthing is bigger in the good ol' US of A.

Used to drive an old barge upto Exchange place and park there on the GSP, everybody in their pristine new cars got out of my way ! . Nobody ever nicked my big fat old v8 Buick, but i would come back to my car late afternoon and see Beemers and Mercs up on bricks , missing their wheels ! and that was in the paid for car parks ! Of course in downtown Manhattan, the pot holes were even bigger ! My nice new Volvo and Honda , never visited Manhattan.

Watch on youtube.com

[nottsblue]

Forest deducted 4 points which puts them in the relegation zone. No word yet on Evertons second punishment

[blues2win]

The whole systems being changed next year. Quite wrong that relegation should be decided by points deductions. Fines and transfer bans possible. Let the season be decided on time and on the pitch.

[sheblue]

Financial breaches, mistakes, misdemeanours etc whatever should be punishment with financial penalties i.e fines etc, over time, relative to how serious the issue was.
Points deductions takes it out on the playing staff and fans who know nothing about the actions of their clubs accounts dept.
They have made a total mess of this.

[CTID Hants]

They had somebody on TS earlier, only caught tail end of it, but whoever it was basically said the Forest appeal will more likely drag on beyond the end of the season.

And said we won't know who gets relegated on the final day!!!!!

Fucked up or what..........

[zuricity]

They had somebody on TS earlier, only caught tail end of it, but whoever it was basically said the Forest appeal will more likely drag on beyond the end of the season.

And said we won't know who gets relegated on the final day!!!!!

Fucked up or what..........

It has come to this has it not . The perpetrators of FFP , long gone from the mess they left behind . All to stop new investment and to keep themselves at the top end of the trough when it's feeding time. Rags, scouse , Arse were all in at the beginning their Directors involved in FFP. Perpetrators conveniently disappear and leave two women in charge at the PL ! I genuinely believe the PL adminstrators don't know how they can get out of the problems caused by prevous adminstrators.

[Mase]

Tony Bellew calls for City to be relegated to the Conference.

Weird fat scouse twat

[CTID Hants]

Tony Bellew calls for City to be relegated to the Conference.

Weird fat scouse twat

I was listening (TS breakfast), he kept on banging about 10 point for them and 4 for forset who apparently broke more rules than them. Only at the very end did he acknowlede the reduction to six, 'but still forest done more wrong than us'......

That's when he mentioned us and going to the conference, saying it like it was a nailed fact that (a) we will be found guilty (b) its the only possible outcome us being sent to the conference.

Utter cunt, from a shithole city.

[patrickblue]

Tony Bellew calls for City to be relegated to the Conference.

Weird fat scouse twat

I was listening (TS breakfast), he kept on banging about 10 point for them and 4 for forset who apparently broke more rules than them. Only at the very end did he acknowlede the reduction to six, 'but still forest done more wrong than us'......

That's when he mentioned us and going to the conference, saying it like it was a nailed fact that (a) we will be found guilty (b) its the only possible outcome us being sent to the conference.

Utter cunt, from a shithole city.

All he kept saying was victim, victim, victim.

Typical scouser really.

[Im_Spartacus]

I have a feeling this situation with Nottingham Forest may turn the tide of opinion relating to 'Financial Sustainability'

On social media and elsewhere, we'll all have seen the rabid frothing at the mouth about Man City driven a lot by the media and jumped on by half wits who don't have a brain in their heads. City are seen as the villain, and invariably the comments I've seen are that the 'top 6' are immune and nobody will do anything about them.

Of course now, we have the dawning realisation from fans in light of the Forest situation, that FFP isn't actually what they have been led to believe. I know we have been saying since the takeover on this site, that we would probably slip through but that we'd be the last club able to benefit from owner investment to get us to the top. I also know that we had many conversations about the fact that the real losers in FFP would be the likes of Everton (a club I specifically named due to being big enough to be attractive to an overseas owner like City), whom would never be able to now do what City have done. Essentially locked into mid-table obscurity forever.

The most common argument I've faced when trying to discuss this on social medial, is that City fans are talking shite about why FFP exists, as it wasn't just United, Arsenal and Liverpool who voted for it, but the rest of the PL clubs including Everton......surely if it was so obviously anti-competetive, the likes of Everton wouldn't have voted for it.

Now with Forest we have our answer to that loud and clear.

The Premier league clubs who voted FFP in, all did so with their own agenda - owners of clubs 10-15 years ago voted based on what was best for them. A future where reduced investment was promised. Not because these club owners ever had any aspirations of challenging at the top of the table, but because it would become increasingly difficult to dislodge any of them from the Premier League for much longer than a year, as it would become increasingly impossible for a Championship club to bridge the gap if they are limited to making a 35m loss in their first year in the PL, which in this day and age could be spent easily on a single player.

We've seen a few exceptionally well run and managed clubs like Bournemouth, Brighton and Brentford establish themselves since then, however with what's happened with Forest, we've seen that it's almost impossible to overhaul your playing squad in your first year of the Premier League, and not fall foul of the rules.Their statement said as much, and was a brilliant response from the club to the absolute BS we're seeing around FFP, and I hope serves as a wakeup call to fans that City aren't the bad guys in all this - we're just the most high profile example of what FFP was designed to prevent.

If we use the example of a club that gets lucky and goes up, perhaps a year or two early, through the playoffs with a sub standard squad that's not ready for the Premier League, you're pretty much fucked. There's absolutely zero point trying to invest to compete, because if you do happen to stay up, you're going to get hit with a fucking points deduction and relegated in your 2nd year.

Mike Ashley is a great case in point - back in the day his interest would have been cementing a place in the PL so he could milk the club dry and spend the least amount possible maintaining the status quo - this is the cartel dream the red clubs sold to the rest of them.....let us continue at the top, you can continue to keep your noses in the trough. Effectively today now we see the results of that when he sells out, the club wins the lottery, but can't spend any fucking money. He effectively sold Newcastle's entire future down the river voting for FFP, and even their fans today don't see it - too quick to blame City for all their troubles for some reason.

We're starting to see the beginning of the end of FFP now, I'm sure of it - because it will surely have to become obvious to the wider public that FFP was pure self interest from top to bottom, that smaller clubs are being fucked up the arse and deterred from having any ambition. They surely have to begin to see that it's bad for everybody, that those who voted for it then get taken over, are stuck with the legacy decision of their greedy previous owner.

If we end up in a situation where relegation can't be decided because of an appeal by Forest, this is going to be a fucking disaster for the Premier League.

[nottsblue]

I have a feeling this situation with Nottingham Forest may turn the tide of opinion relating to 'Financial Sustainability'

On social media and elsewhere, we'll all have seen the rabid frothing at the mouth about Man City driven a lot by the media and jumped on by half wits who don't have a brain in their heads. City are seen as the villain, and invariably the comments I've seen are that the 'top 6' are immune and nobody will do anything about them.

Of course now, we have the dawning realisation from fans in light of the Forest situation, that FFP isn't actually what they have been led to believe. I know we have been saying since the takeover on this site, that we would probably slip through but that we'd be the last club able to benefit from owner investment to get us to the top. I also know that we had many conversations about the fact that the real losers in FFP would be the likes of Everton (a club I specifically named due to being big enough to be attractive to an overseas owner like City), whom would never be able to now do what City have done. Essentially locked into mid-table obscurity forever.

The most common argument I've faced when trying to discuss this on social medial, is that City fans are talking shite about why FFP exists, as it wasn't just United, Arsenal and Liverpool who voted for it, but the rest of the PL clubs including Everton......surely if it was so obviously anti-competetive, the likes of Everton wouldn't have voted for it.

Now with Forest we have our answer to that loud and clear.

The Premier league clubs who voted FFP in, all did so with their own agenda - owners of clubs 10-15 years ago voted based on what was best for them. A future where reduced investment was promised. Not because these club owners ever had any aspirations of challenging at the top of the table, but because it would become increasingly difficult to dislodge any of them from the Premier League for much longer than a year, as it would become increasingly impossible for a Championship club to bridge the gap if they are limited to making a 35m loss in their first year in the PL, which in this day and age could be spent easily on a single player.

We've seen a few exceptionally well run and managed clubs like Bournemouth, Brighton and Brentford establish themselves since then, however with what's happened with Forest, we've seen that it's almost impossible to overhaul your playing squad in your first year of the Premier League, and not fall foul of the rules.Their statement said as much, and was a brilliant response from the club to the absolute BS we're seeing around FFP, and I hope serves as a wakeup call to fans that City aren't the bad guys in all this - we're just the most high profile example of what FFP was designed to prevent.

If we use the example of a club that gets lucky and goes up, perhaps a year or two early, through the playoffs with a sub standard squad that's not ready for the Premier League, you're pretty much fucked. There's absolutely zero point trying to invest to compete, because if you do happen to stay up, you're going to get hit with a fucking points deduction and relegated in your 2nd year.

Mike Ashley is a great case in point - back in the day his interest would have been cementing a place in the PL so he could milk the club dry and spend the least amount possible maintaining the status quo - this is the cartel dream the red clubs sold to the rest of them.....let us continue at the top, you can continue to keep your noses in the trough. Effectively today now we see the results of that when he sells out, the club wins the lottery, but can't spend any fucking money. He effectively sold Newcastle's entire future down the river voting for FFP, and even their fans today don't see it - too quick to blame City for all their troubles for some reason.

We're starting to see the beginning of the end of FFP now, I'm sure of it - because it will surely have to become obvious to the wider public that FFP was pure self interest from top to bottom, that smaller clubs are being fucked up the arse and deterred from having any ambition. They surely have to begin to see that it's bad for everybody, that those who voted for it then get taken over, are stuck with the legacy decision of their greedy previous owner.

If we end up in a situation where relegation can't be decided because of an appeal by Forest, this is going to be a fucking disaster for the Premier League.

Spot on Sparty.

Can totally confirm in Nottingham that opinion is starting to change and the penny is rapidly dropping that they have been sold a lie in the true purpose of FFP. That it isn't about fair play and ensuring clubs don't collapse, more it was a tool to ensure the status quo was maintained.

Sad that it has taken so long for everyday football fans to realise what has happened under their noses, but at least it has started.