Manchester City have appealed after an independent commission found the club guilty of breaching 114 Premier League rules. The case matters because the appeal process will shape any sanctions and the timetable remains uncertain.
The verdict and City's response
An independent commission found Manchester City guilty of breaching 114 Premier League rules.
The panel found Manchester City to have used 'sham' sponsorship deals to boost their earnings by around £900m between 2009 and 2018.
Manchester City 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 than from their owners.
The initial three-man commission has already seen that 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.
Appeal timetable
The Premier League rulebook says the appeal should take 12 weeks, with 30 days set aside for the judgement, meaning a verdict by the end of January.
Football365 reported that football finance expert Kieran Maguire does not see a verdict by the end of January as realistic.
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.
Possible sanctions
Possible punishments 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.
Football365 reported that another report said sources from both the FA and the Premier League suggest the greater likelihood is a points deduction that would give City a chance of staying up this season.
Maguire on the case
Kieran Maguire, a football finance expert, 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."
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."
