http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jul/08/manchester-city-deal-etihad-airways Surprised no one's commented on this. ''City must now convince Uefa that the amounts involved do not contravene the incoming financial fair play regulations and, specifically, the condition that stipulates sponsors with close links to club owners pay a fair price. Etihad are owned by the Abu Dhabi government and the airline's association with the City owner, Sheikh Mansour, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, will almost certainly prompt Uefa's Club Financial Control Panel, under the chairmanship of the former Belgian prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, to investigate. A Uefa spokesman said: "We are aware of the situation and our experts will make assessments of fair value of any sponsorship deals using benchmarks." This just piles on the pressure on other teams aiming for a CL place and imo distorts the premier league. lets hope it doesn't get thru. If it gets through then Levy and his counterparts have got to do something for the good of the game.
Money talks. In the case of the football authorities, it also buys you a house, takes care of the kids school bills, pays for your daughter's wedding and sends you on holiday.
As has already been said, I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for UEFA to act. As I feared when these new rules were mooted, The ****ty's of the world will hire an army of smart-arse lawyers to drive whatever buses they can through them. This sounds like ****ty testing the water to see how far they can push things. I hope UEFA will come down hard on these type of blatant sponsorship deals - But, like I said, don't hold your breath.
http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/61735-Tottenham-Fun-League/page5 Read pages 4 & 5, other fans feel the same way chigwelllad
Thanks croatiaspur I noticed it after I posted, I like the united translation. It is serious though and doesnt hurt to repeat it.
