RogerFromHackney🇧🇧🇮🇳🇯🇲🇱🇨🇬🇧

Ashley, I've seen some spectacularly stupid takes on City's case, but dismissing an independent disciplinary tribunal as "three blokes of unknown expertise giving their opinion" is right up there. Let's introduce you to a little thing called the legal system. Firstly, the commission wasn't three random blokes selected from the queue at the Etihad's half-empty pie stand. The three commissioners were appointed through the Premier League's independent Judicial Panel, chaired at the time by Murray Rosen KC. Who is Murray Rosen KC, you ask? An experienced King's Counsel, sports arbitrator and Deputy High Court judge. Not exactly Dave from the pub who's watched a few episodes of Judge Rinder. The Judicial Panel consists of legal, financial and other specialists, and the commission hearing City's charges was required to include financial expertise. The individual commissioners' names have been redacted from the published decision. So we cannot independently examine all three CVs. But claiming they're three unqualified blokes is something you've invented, not something you've established. Now here's where your argument really falls apart. A disciplinary tribunal doesn't have to be a criminal court to deliver a legally binding decision under the applicable rules. City voluntarily participate in the Premier League and are subject to its regulations, disciplinary procedures and appeal mechanisms. The commission heard extensive evidence, examined financial arrangements, considered legal arguments and delivered formal findings. Those findings aren't just three people having a chat over a packet of Hobnobs. And your grand plan of taking everything to a "real court"? Brilliant. Except the High Court isn't a giant VAR screen where City can demand the entire match be replayed because they didn't like the referee's decision. Court challenges to arbitration decisions are subject to specific legal grounds and restrictions. They aren't an automatic rehearing of the facts. City have every right to appeal. They have every right to challenge findings through the proper legal channels. But the existence of an appeal doesn't make the original tribunal incompetent, biased or illegitimate. And perhaps the funniest part is that you're confidently questioning the expertise of people appointed through an established legal process while displaying absolutely no understanding of that process yourself. You don't know who the three commissioners are. Neither do I, because their names were redacted. The difference is that I'm not pretending their anonymity proves incompetence. You appear to believe that unless three judges arrive wearing wigs and carrying gavels, the entire thing is just an opinion. That's not legal analysis, Ashley. That's a football supporter trying to turn denial into a constitutional principle. City can appeal the decision. Unfortunately, there's no appeals process for making an absolute show of yourself on Twitter. 😂