A football finance expert has explained why he thinks an ‘investigation’ into Manchester City’s conduct has ‘already’ been ‘terminated’.
Man City have been embroiled in a heated legal battle against the Premier League since the start of 2023 as they were charged with breaching over 100 Financial Fair Play rules.
The Premier League holders were referred to an independent commission following a prolonged four-year probe into their conduct between 2009 and 2018.
After achieving success with their separate Associate Party Transaction (APT) case against the Premier League, Man City’s FFP hearing culminated towards the end of 2024 and a verdict is expected to be announced this month.
While we wait for a Man City vs Premier League conclusion, there was a fresh development last week as La Liga chief Javier Tebas has ‘accused’ the Cityzens of ‘deception’ as they have ‘tried’ to circumvent football’s FFP rules by hiding their costs in affiliated companies and likened the situation to the infamous Enron accounting scandal of 2001’.
Man City head coach Pep Guardiola has since issued a blunt response to Tebas’ claims and Stefan Borson – former advisor for the Premier League side – reckons they have ‘warned’ the La Liga supremo about his ‘libellous statements’.
La Liga’s complaint against Man City was filed in July 2023 and Borson has explained why he reckons this situation has ‘already’ been ‘terminated’.
“I think he has been warned by City around some of the more libellous statements that he’s made about the club, its owners and its management team,” Borson told Football Insider.
“It was interesting that he didn’t make any of these statements during his interview under the FT Business Summit that he was present at.
“He made these comments to the media in the lobby, thereby creating the story without anybody necessarily probing him on stage or having a recording of it.
“But clearly, he’s made these comments and I don’t think City will be very happy with being accused of being, in essence, the Enron of Europe. I think City obviously will say ‘It’s all nonsense, look at the accounts, so there is nothing to see here’.
“I suspect that the investigation and the complaint into PSG, and if it was City, would have terminated quite some time ago. The EU has a window in which they can, first of all, start an investigation.
“I think it’s a fairly short window. I think it’s something like 25 days, which they can commence an investigation after a complaint is received. Beyond that, they then have an investigation period that can be extended.
“But I think it’s unlikely that it would have been extended all the way through to 2025 because the complaint was made a long time ago.”