18-03-2024, 07:04 PM
Just read the entire thing, gets a bit boring after a while. The initial history of what happened is really interesting. My reading of it suggests there probably is grounds for an appeal as most of our mitigation was rejected.
I think the big takeaways:
- 10m on covid losses we weren't aware of until Jun 23, would've just lowered the loss.
- 20 promotion bonuses, they suggest that they are comparable to survival bonuses therefore they shouldn't be excluded. I think that misses the point though as if you survive you are budgeting for the extra PL income. Plus, if that is a factor worthy of 20m then why are there also parachute payments?
- Budgeted for 12th in March - really?!
The errors from our end really surround Brennan. Why didn't we just accept Atletico's offer? Even though it was conditional that was enough to prove we could've sold him and then if it fell through we still could've got more. The biggest mistake we made in all of this though is playing Brennan in those first four games, if we'd just taken him out, I think this would've stood up. How annoying.
The commission also argued we should've taken Brentford's offer in July as it was closer to the June deadline than the eventual sale. I think we could legitimately argue at that point there was no precedent for this so it made no sense for us to sell at that point once we'd missed the 30th June deadline.
Ultimately, I do also think there's a mitigation in general, in that the Everton case didn't exist at that point, they referred to that a lot in the case but we couldn't have known at that point that is how the rules would be applied. I think this partially offsets the mistakes made even if it doesn't work in the actual legal case. It's such complex stuff too and we needed to run close to the line to have a chance of staying up.
Just frustrating that they knew that we'd failed by June 30th yet we still played Brennan in those matches in August, that is a disappointing mistake that has sadly cost us 4 points (currently).
I hope it's clear from this overall though that I am largely defending the club aside from that one mistake as I suspect they are getting slaughtered online right now!
I think the big takeaways:
- 10m on covid losses we weren't aware of until Jun 23, would've just lowered the loss.
- 20 promotion bonuses, they suggest that they are comparable to survival bonuses therefore they shouldn't be excluded. I think that misses the point though as if you survive you are budgeting for the extra PL income. Plus, if that is a factor worthy of 20m then why are there also parachute payments?
- Budgeted for 12th in March - really?!
The errors from our end really surround Brennan. Why didn't we just accept Atletico's offer? Even though it was conditional that was enough to prove we could've sold him and then if it fell through we still could've got more. The biggest mistake we made in all of this though is playing Brennan in those first four games, if we'd just taken him out, I think this would've stood up. How annoying.
The commission also argued we should've taken Brentford's offer in July as it was closer to the June deadline than the eventual sale. I think we could legitimately argue at that point there was no precedent for this so it made no sense for us to sell at that point once we'd missed the 30th June deadline.
Ultimately, I do also think there's a mitigation in general, in that the Everton case didn't exist at that point, they referred to that a lot in the case but we couldn't have known at that point that is how the rules would be applied. I think this partially offsets the mistakes made even if it doesn't work in the actual legal case. It's such complex stuff too and we needed to run close to the line to have a chance of staying up.
Just frustrating that they knew that we'd failed by June 30th yet we still played Brennan in those matches in August, that is a disappointing mistake that has sadly cost us 4 points (currently).
I hope it's clear from this overall though that I am largely defending the club aside from that one mistake as I suspect they are getting slaughtered online right now!