Reading the BBC website the CAS report said that some of the more serious charges were time barred I assume they meant there was a statute of limitations. They then go on to confirm that UEAFA were correct that City failed to co-operate with the investigation but that didn't warrant a ban in itself.

So if I understand correctly if you do something wrong your lawyers will advise you not to co-operate and drag the investigation out for as long as possible and eventually the charges will be dropped as time has run out.

I believe they call this the Julian Assange defence.

[Link]

Edited by Badger11 (13 Jul 2020 10.37am)

One more point

Look on the bright side, it’s going to keep Tottenham or Arsenal or both out of Europe if we are lucky.

Money talks

I disagree, I think its great that there are other teams getting a chance to play Euro football and I think it makes a refreshing change to not see teams who think they deserve to be in Europe just because of previous seasons successes. If the traditional top 6 had it their way they would not have to qualify for european football at all and that situation would not be good for football.

In defence of UEFA here, they did try to ban City from European Competition for 2 seasons which would've sent a clear message to the whole football world - you cannot buy success.

It would've stopped the Newcastle deal as it looks likely they'll be the new PSG and as someone mentioned above, it would have meant City won't just throw £150 million at the Summer transfer window to have the Title sewn up by February. They are already in better form than Liverpool and Liverpool are restricted who they can buy in the Summer, so an injury to the front 3 combined with City spending £150 million will make the league an absolute farce and snore-fest again.

It was this weird independent Body that made UEFA look like fools. Now no one will ever take them seriously again or comply with their Searches. They basically need to avoid UEFA and be as unhelpful as possible until the statute of limitations passes and the random Independent Body clears them.

The football authorities do not have the money to challenge the super rich clubs head on in the courts.
No one on the gravy train stands to gain from it anyway.

They might as well scrap Fairplay rules if they are not enforceable and replace them with a simpler system that can be enforced to keep the playing field as level as possible.
Trouble is that the media companies that pump so much money into football want the big clubs doing well so they can sell more advertising. They hate it when there are smaller clubs are in the PL.

Edited by Hrolf The Ganger (15 Jul 2020 2.09pm)