A football finance expert has provided an ‘update’ on Manchester City’s legal battle against the Premier League as their FFP case nears a conclusion.
Man City have been in a heated legal battle against the Premier League since they were referred to an independent commission at the start of 2023.
The Premier League conducted a four-year probe into Man City’s alleged conduct between 2009 and 2018 before charging Pep Guardiola‘s side with over 100 breaches of FFP regulations.
City have brashly attempted to brush off these charges and have insisted on their innocence. Their confidence is clear after they were comfortably the biggest spenders in Europe in January, moving up in our Premier League net spend table.
However, Man City could still be found guilty and if the case goes against them, they could be given a fine, transfer ban, points deduction or expulsion from the Premier League.
A recent report claimed a verdict is expected ‘any day now’ and former City advisor Stefan Borson has ruled out a “confusing” verdict regarding a potential appeal in a fresh ‘update’ on the situation.
“I think there’s been some sort of debate about whether you would have a split appeal process or whether effectively the parties will be told to wait until the full judgment and then to appeal the liability and the sanction together,” Borson said in an interview with Football Insider.
“I think it’ll be the latter. Otherwise, you could have the complexity where the liability hearing is being appealed while waiting for the sanction hearing, so that would seem to be a bit confusing.”
Borson continued: “I think the appeal will probably have to wait until we’ve got the full verdict. If it’s a two-week sanctions set of submissions and a separate hearing, then you have got to then wait for the decision to come out on that.
“That itself could be a month, six weeks or maybe more. The Everton and the Nottingham Forest cases were effectively sanction hearings because liability had been admitted.
“We saw those took around six weeks, maybe longer from the actual panel to the decision, so this is going to drag on. Now it looks like it’s going to drag on until the end of the season.
“In some ways, that could suit everybody involved. It’s only going to drag on to the end of the season if City are found liable for anything. If they’re clear, then the question will be what will the Premier League want to do about an appeal?
“But if City are found liable for anything, this could drag on until the end of the season. In some ways, that’s positive in that it allows people to deal with it in the closed season to an extent.
“But if the sanction is very serious, then you’ve got the issue of what happens with relegation or which season do you take the points from and all of that sort of stuff. It’s always been complicated, and it remains complicated.
“I don’t think anybody’s got very precise answers at the moment.”