Open letter to the gentlemen of the press

I’m getting thoroughly fed up with the way the outcome of our hearing is being reported. It is as if we have got away with something when actually we were found innocent. To borrow Mr Warnock’s favourite phrase “The press never let the facts get in the way of a good story”. We WERE found innocent. The fact that Ale was signed before the rule was in place probably had something to do with that! There was no false documentation, only a chairman with an ego bigger than his brain. All the time this is reported as “escaping a points deduction for breaching regulations in the 2009 signing of Alejandro Faurlin” (BBC website) there is going to be on going resentment, and quite frankly, I can understand why. If I was a Swansea supporter reading that I would want an investigation. I think this must be because everyone assumed we were guilty in the first place, we were not given the benefit of “innocent until proven guilty”, except, thankfully, by the people who really mattered, those running the hearing. Come on you men of the press, start doing your jobs properly and start reporting the fact that we were found innocent of these charges.

 

But we were found guilty Roller and punished! But I get your point. I think everyone just wants to take the p**s outta the FA and make them sound incompetent which isn't hard.

 

The panel imposed a fine of £800,000 for a breach of FA Rule E3 - which relates to bringing the game into disrepute - and a fine of £75,000 for breaking Rule A1, which outlaws the use of unauthorised agents.

Nothing to do with 3rd party ownership or providing false documentation.

 

True true bro. This saga will rumble on for a while and then die of natural causes when something more controversial comes along.

 

I think they used the phrase 'not proven' as opposed to not guilty roller. It suggests that the FA failed to do their homework rather than our ability to convince the panel of our innocence.

Fact is though, the onus is on the prosecution to prove the charges as put, and in this sense the FA have a lot to answer for.

You're right though roller, mud sticks and the majority of it has come via the media.

 

I think that is the terminology that the F.A. use, not being a court of law, just a governing body. Their charges are proven or not proven. Can anyone confirm or correct this?

 

How defamatory is that?! Charging us with false documentation, we present our case and it's decided that the documentation is actually okay (presumably). How rubbish are the FA Investigators?

 

The press just cant really accept that we were found innocent which means the evidence not the strength of the FA's prosecution caused the result to be not guilty. I would like nothing more than the club to sue the Sun for libel, purely for the extent of crap they've said and the fact that in the face of us being innocent they still report the story like we got off on a technicality and the FA screwed up the case.

In fairness to the FA, none of this would have happened if they hadnt back-dated the rule that caused doubt over the legality of Faurlin to a time before we signed him, after we had signed him. The FA is also the only FA in the world to have non-registered agent charges, evn though all of the agents we used were approved by UEFA. As Warnock said, the press cant bear to let the truth get in the way of a good story.