Tweet
The last couple of weeks has seen the landscape of the FFO footballing world shift from side to side and late on Monday evening everything came to a head just hours after G_Moscardo had put pen to paper on a 5 year deal with Italian team Juventus.
The 19 year old Brazilian defensive midfielder signed on the dotted line shortly after 15:30 after a lengthy auction process, which lasted over 1 week, which sealed his £145,000,000 transfer to Juventus but roughly 3-4 hours later, the deal was in jeopardy and numerous managers had declared war on the Turin based team over certain allegations that had come to light, only after Juventus were successful in the auction market.
Obviously the witch-hunt was led by resident busy body Simon Clarke (struggling PSG manager) and surprisingly Arsenal manager Darren Humphries. The pair seemed to be working together to draw up a legal complaint to take to the FFO FA in order to punish Juventus one way or the other. The pair gathered cult like followers in the usual suspects such as Steven K Talbot, Neil Kirby & Sam Bradwell and the formal complaint was submitted. The FA at first brushed the complaints aside, stating that they'd already spoken on the matter but the louder their complaints got, outside FFO FA headquarters, the FA stepped in to announce that a trail would take place and an announcement would be made the following day (Tuesday 27th of August)
By now, you must be wondering what allegations Juventus and their head coach Andy Banks were facing. Auction collusion.
An allegation was made that while negotiating for a separate player, Banks approached Manchester United manager Steven Outten in order to offer him a deal. Banks would match the asking price on Ansu_Fati if United would back off from bidding on G_Moscardo in the, then, current spot auction.
At the time of this alleged offer, Banks' Juventus held the high bid at just over £100,000,000 but Fati was ultimately sold to Arsenal and Manchester United would continue to bid on the 19 year old.
It's said that Manchester United manager Steven Outten approached the FFO FA to seek out further clarification if the approach was illegal or not, without naming anyone, well before the meltdown of Monday evening.
A week passed and the bidding crept up to a whopping £145,000,000 set by Juventus and after 24 hours passed without a better offer, Moscardo left for Italy.
However since then, less than 24 hours later, the Brazilian is returned home awaiting on his next club as the FFO FA passed judgement on the case.
To begin with, the punishment handed down to Juventus was as followed:
A £75,000,000 2 year suspended fine which would be activated should Banks or Juventus conduct themselves in such a way again
Juventus to be banned from the following 2 mid season auctions
These punishments were decided by a panel, however within the hour after this ruling being made public, more pressure from outside influences caused the head of the FFO FA to step in and completely change the ruling:
NOW, Juventus will be banned from the remaining spot auctions this season and will now no longer be signing G_Moscardo.
The 19 year old was put back up for sale and is STILL for sale as the bidding has lasted all week again and at the time of writing, the bidding is up to £124,000,000 from Manchester United with PSG keen to keep the bidding going for another few days.
Representatives from Juventus have been rather quiet this week but we've managed to get an exclusive interview with Juventus manager Andy Banks, here with the story is our reporter Charlie Moore:
CM: Thank you for taking time to speak to us today Mr Banks. First of all, tell us about the last couple of weeks, in relation to this spot auction and G_Moscardo
AB: Well the lad is clearly very talented with lots of potential, that's why the price for his signature was very high. It seems like there was only ever 1 club that was serious about signing him and that was us. To me it seems like the intentions of the other clubs bidding was to drag it out as long as possible and to drive the price up which was fine with us as we ended up with the winning bid. Or so we thought.
CM: Tell us about the punishment that was handed to Juventus and what your feelings are on it.
AB: Well we felt that the original punishment was a bit of a joke, a suspended £75,000,000 fine which would be activated if XY & Z happened is far too blurry for me. No further information was given to us to explain what would and wouldn't activate the fine. Something I should have expected after looking at the rules. But also a 2 season ban for the mid season auctions. Had we broken the rules, I could understand this however, no rules were broken by Juventus as there has been no rule announced for a spot auction that states you can't 'collude'
We are experiencing targeted justice here and while the moaning masses may be rubbing their hands together at the thought of this, it's completely unfair and unjustified.
The allegations are correct. In a situation where ourselves and Manchester United were £10,000,000 apart in terms of value in a deal, and we were at that point the only clubs bidding on Moscardo, we felt it made sense to come to an agreement in where Manchester United would get the deal that they wanted, and Juventus could save a few million pounds rather than competing against Manchester United whose purpose seemed to be to drive up the price of the lad.
We didn't and still do not see this as collusion as all bids were public and at that point, the likes of Manchester City & PSG could and in the end did make bids.
CM: How do you feel about managers of other clubs getting involved and calling for more serious punishment to be handed to the club?
AB: It's a joke, a really funny joke. To see them all so bent out of shape is hilarious. I keep reading comments such as "You've been caught!" or "You've been found out!" however it was ourselves who approached the FA with this originally after Manchester United accused us of this and we were told it was 'Immoral, not illegal'
In addition to this we informed Arsenal Manager Darren Humphries about the situation and for 6 full days there was no issue between ourselves and the Premier League team but late Monday evening the Arsenal manager decided to inform the world of our apparent collusion and to demand answers and action to be taken against us.
It's also taken the Manchester United manager the best part of a week to make an official complaint, coincidentally shortly after his team missed out on a signing to Juventus but I understand that almost as they were involved in the bidding war however the likes of Arsenal & PSG who really weren't have no need to involve themselves and act all high and mighty at the situation. Especially when both of their managers have spent the last few years acting unprofessionally and questionably.
CM: What do you say to the further allegation that Juventus were sourcing a club to take Moscardo on loan for the rest of the season?
AB: Again, I ask where the rule is that states that you can't do that. We approached Sheffield Wednesday's owner to ask if they'd be interested in a deal where we would loan the lad to them and pay them a fee to do this. They were and we were happy to if we signed him however less than 24 hours later WE were approached by Tottenham Hotspur with them asking US if they could loan him to which we said yes as we were confident that we could land his signature. It seems like the whole of the footballing world is searching for something that we've done that they can be offended by as this conversation with Sheffield Wednesday happened a week before it was made public by PSG manager Simon Clark after he was informed by Owls advisor Sam Bradwell of such a conversation.
CM: How do you feel this compares to previous allegations of collusion & rule breaking?
AB: When you look at the previous allegations aimed at other clubs, this is nothing in comparison. Those teams broke clear rules and exploited loopholes and bent rules to their benefit while we broke no written rule. The likes of AS Roma & PSG were BUILT upon these kinds of actions and yet they feel that they can look down on us and expect us to be the ones to be punished. On multiple occasions, the PSG manager Simon Clarke has attempted to collude with ourselves when it comes to the auctions but we've bit our tongue and kept that information to ourselves but now we're the ones to be made an example of. It just doesn't sit right with me.
CM: Where do Juventus go from here? With over £200,000,000 left in the bank and nothing to spend it on (Via an auction)
AB: We're right back in the boat that we were in before these auctions. Would we have liked to have signed a player to develop? Yes, but we haven't due to actions of others and pressure from others and due to this the FA have folded like a house of cards and made this ruling. We have the right players at the club already and so if we have to sit on this balance for a while then that's what we'll have to do. No doubt the usual suspects will be appealing to the FA to slap us with a fine, a points deduction, a transfer embargo and more but for now we'll wait to see what the future brings.
The 19 year old Brazilian defensive midfielder signed on the dotted line shortly after 15:30 after a lengthy auction process, which lasted over 1 week, which sealed his £145,000,000 transfer to Juventus but roughly 3-4 hours later, the deal was in jeopardy and numerous managers had declared war on the Turin based team over certain allegations that had come to light, only after Juventus were successful in the auction market.
Obviously the witch-hunt was led by resident busy body Simon Clarke (struggling PSG manager) and surprisingly Arsenal manager Darren Humphries. The pair seemed to be working together to draw up a legal complaint to take to the FFO FA in order to punish Juventus one way or the other. The pair gathered cult like followers in the usual suspects such as Steven K Talbot, Neil Kirby & Sam Bradwell and the formal complaint was submitted. The FA at first brushed the complaints aside, stating that they'd already spoken on the matter but the louder their complaints got, outside FFO FA headquarters, the FA stepped in to announce that a trail would take place and an announcement would be made the following day (Tuesday 27th of August)
By now, you must be wondering what allegations Juventus and their head coach Andy Banks were facing. Auction collusion.
An allegation was made that while negotiating for a separate player, Banks approached Manchester United manager Steven Outten in order to offer him a deal. Banks would match the asking price on Ansu_Fati if United would back off from bidding on G_Moscardo in the, then, current spot auction.
At the time of this alleged offer, Banks' Juventus held the high bid at just over £100,000,000 but Fati was ultimately sold to Arsenal and Manchester United would continue to bid on the 19 year old.
It's said that Manchester United manager Steven Outten approached the FFO FA to seek out further clarification if the approach was illegal or not, without naming anyone, well before the meltdown of Monday evening.
A week passed and the bidding crept up to a whopping £145,000,000 set by Juventus and after 24 hours passed without a better offer, Moscardo left for Italy.
However since then, less than 24 hours later, the Brazilian is returned home awaiting on his next club as the FFO FA passed judgement on the case.
To begin with, the punishment handed down to Juventus was as followed:
A £75,000,000 2 year suspended fine which would be activated should Banks or Juventus conduct themselves in such a way again
Juventus to be banned from the following 2 mid season auctions
These punishments were decided by a panel, however within the hour after this ruling being made public, more pressure from outside influences caused the head of the FFO FA to step in and completely change the ruling:
NOW, Juventus will be banned from the remaining spot auctions this season and will now no longer be signing G_Moscardo.
The 19 year old was put back up for sale and is STILL for sale as the bidding has lasted all week again and at the time of writing, the bidding is up to £124,000,000 from Manchester United with PSG keen to keep the bidding going for another few days.
Representatives from Juventus have been rather quiet this week but we've managed to get an exclusive interview with Juventus manager Andy Banks, here with the story is our reporter Charlie Moore:
CM: Thank you for taking time to speak to us today Mr Banks. First of all, tell us about the last couple of weeks, in relation to this spot auction and G_Moscardo
AB: Well the lad is clearly very talented with lots of potential, that's why the price for his signature was very high. It seems like there was only ever 1 club that was serious about signing him and that was us. To me it seems like the intentions of the other clubs bidding was to drag it out as long as possible and to drive the price up which was fine with us as we ended up with the winning bid. Or so we thought.
CM: Tell us about the punishment that was handed to Juventus and what your feelings are on it.
AB: Well we felt that the original punishment was a bit of a joke, a suspended £75,000,000 fine which would be activated if XY & Z happened is far too blurry for me. No further information was given to us to explain what would and wouldn't activate the fine. Something I should have expected after looking at the rules. But also a 2 season ban for the mid season auctions. Had we broken the rules, I could understand this however, no rules were broken by Juventus as there has been no rule announced for a spot auction that states you can't 'collude'
We are experiencing targeted justice here and while the moaning masses may be rubbing their hands together at the thought of this, it's completely unfair and unjustified.
The allegations are correct. In a situation where ourselves and Manchester United were £10,000,000 apart in terms of value in a deal, and we were at that point the only clubs bidding on Moscardo, we felt it made sense to come to an agreement in where Manchester United would get the deal that they wanted, and Juventus could save a few million pounds rather than competing against Manchester United whose purpose seemed to be to drive up the price of the lad.
We didn't and still do not see this as collusion as all bids were public and at that point, the likes of Manchester City & PSG could and in the end did make bids.
CM: How do you feel about managers of other clubs getting involved and calling for more serious punishment to be handed to the club?
AB: It's a joke, a really funny joke. To see them all so bent out of shape is hilarious. I keep reading comments such as "You've been caught!" or "You've been found out!" however it was ourselves who approached the FA with this originally after Manchester United accused us of this and we were told it was 'Immoral, not illegal'
In addition to this we informed Arsenal Manager Darren Humphries about the situation and for 6 full days there was no issue between ourselves and the Premier League team but late Monday evening the Arsenal manager decided to inform the world of our apparent collusion and to demand answers and action to be taken against us.
It's also taken the Manchester United manager the best part of a week to make an official complaint, coincidentally shortly after his team missed out on a signing to Juventus but I understand that almost as they were involved in the bidding war however the likes of Arsenal & PSG who really weren't have no need to involve themselves and act all high and mighty at the situation. Especially when both of their managers have spent the last few years acting unprofessionally and questionably.
CM: What do you say to the further allegation that Juventus were sourcing a club to take Moscardo on loan for the rest of the season?
AB: Again, I ask where the rule is that states that you can't do that. We approached Sheffield Wednesday's owner to ask if they'd be interested in a deal where we would loan the lad to them and pay them a fee to do this. They were and we were happy to if we signed him however less than 24 hours later WE were approached by Tottenham Hotspur with them asking US if they could loan him to which we said yes as we were confident that we could land his signature. It seems like the whole of the footballing world is searching for something that we've done that they can be offended by as this conversation with Sheffield Wednesday happened a week before it was made public by PSG manager Simon Clark after he was informed by Owls advisor Sam Bradwell of such a conversation.
CM: How do you feel this compares to previous allegations of collusion & rule breaking?
AB: When you look at the previous allegations aimed at other clubs, this is nothing in comparison. Those teams broke clear rules and exploited loopholes and bent rules to their benefit while we broke no written rule. The likes of AS Roma & PSG were BUILT upon these kinds of actions and yet they feel that they can look down on us and expect us to be the ones to be punished. On multiple occasions, the PSG manager Simon Clarke has attempted to collude with ourselves when it comes to the auctions but we've bit our tongue and kept that information to ourselves but now we're the ones to be made an example of. It just doesn't sit right with me.
CM: Where do Juventus go from here? With over £200,000,000 left in the bank and nothing to spend it on (Via an auction)
AB: We're right back in the boat that we were in before these auctions. Would we have liked to have signed a player to develop? Yes, but we haven't due to actions of others and pressure from others and due to this the FA have folded like a house of cards and made this ruling. We have the right players at the club already and so if we have to sit on this balance for a while then that's what we'll have to do. No doubt the usual suspects will be appealing to the FA to slap us with a fine, a points deduction, a transfer embargo and more but for now we'll wait to see what the future brings.