Manchester City are awaiting to see how the Premier League will punish them over FFP sanctions, and the case could take years to conclude. Football finance expert Kieran Maguire said the uncertainty will continue for “not just months but years” and TEAMtalk says he believes clubs could be considering a settlement with City.
Appeal timeline may extend
Manchester City have appealed the verdict. TEAMtalk says the Premier League rulebook says the appeal should take 12 weeks, with 30 days then set aside for the judgement, meaning a verdict by the end of January.
James Severn, described by TEAMtalk as a member of the London Solicitor Litigation Association (LSLA) and partner at Pennington Manches Cooper, said: “My instinct is that it will probably take longer given the complexity of the case.”
Severn said: “When you look at the original decision, they are referencing a 150-page index and thousands of documents so I wouldn’t be expecting something super quick from the appeal board.”
Severn said: “Everyone will be keen to deal with it as quickly as it can reasonably be achieved but they will all be desperate to make sure whatever is done is done thoroughly so it could take a very long time, to be frank.”
Further legal steps are available
The I Paper reported that Manchester City are prepared to “exhaust every legal avenue”.
TEAMtalk says Manchester City can appeal the sanctions after appealing the verdict and can then request arbitration if they feel the process is flawed, before taking the case to the High Court.
Severn said: “Panels don’t like to be appealed – and they especially don’t like appeals against them to be upheld – so they will be doing this extremely carefully, especially given how high-profile this case is. They will be leaving no stone unturned rather than rushing things through.”
TEAMtalk's claims on the case
TEAMtalk says Manchester City were found guilty of breaching 114 Premier League rules by an independent commission.
TEAMtalk says the panel found Manchester City to have used ‘sham’ sponsorship deals to boost they earnings by around £900million between 2009 and 2018.
TEAMtalk says Manchester City continue to insist upon their innocence and claim they have “irrefutable evidence” to prove it, in the form of documents showing that the sponsorship funds came from the Abu Dhabi government rather from their owners.
TEAMtalk says the initial three-man commission has already seen this evidence and concluded it was an explanation that the club had concocted well after the event in an attempt to conceal the realities of the Disguised Funding Scheme.
Possible punishments mentioned in TEAMtalk include fines, transfer bans, points deductions, Premier League expulsion and titles being stripped, while the owners could also be removed by the Independent Football Regulator.
Maguire raises settlement possibility
Maguire said: “I think the uncertainty will go on for a very long time. Not just months but years.”
Maguire said: “A lawyer friend told me that City have already started the process of creating noise and mess around the process.”
Maguire said: “If you look at what’s happened already it appears they are gearing up for a very long and expensive fight over this.”
TEAMtalk says the Premier League wants a punishment to be applied before the end of the 2026/27 season.
Maguire said: “Is the aim to persuade the Premier League to go to its members and say ‘This could cost us as an organisation £25m-a-year to fight it, do you want us to negotiate a settlement?’”
Maguire said: “For the clubs like Ipswich, Sunderland, Brentford, they might see that money as coming out of their bottom line and – potentially – this isn’t really their fight because they were never trying to be competitive with Manchester City.”
Maguire said: “The pressure has really been applied by two or three clubs who lost out on trophies or Champions League places. If this approach splits the Premier League then things get complicated.”