SPORT Man City facing wait til 2027 for punishment in league dispute

Frank Dalleres

IT COULD take as long as four years for Manchester City to receive punishment if found guilty of perpetrating the biggest financial scandal in Premier League history.

Reigning champions City were charged last month with more than 100 alleged rule breaches dating back to 2009, including falsely reporting income and the salaries of players and managers, and failing to cooperate with the Premier League’s fouryear investigation.

Sports law experts believe that the complexity of the case, the seriousness of the charges and the legal capabilities of both parties mean that it is likely to drag on until 2025 at the earliest.

“Given the parties involved, given there are 115 charges, given that some of the charges are alleging things akin to fraud and dishonesty, given the lawyers and legal teams involved, I do not believe that this is going to be wrapped up in anything less than two to four years’ time. I think that’s impossible, and I don’t think anyone reasonably is arguing otherwise,” said leading barrister Nick De Marco KC.

City are the first club to be charged by the Premier League with such serious alleged breaches, making recent cases from the English Football League the most realistic comparison. “We

TENNIS had the Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday cases where only two allegations were brought against those clubs, and the legal teams were not quite as high level as they are in this case,” added De Marco, speaking at a discussion on football regulation organised by law firm Mischon de Reya.

“It took roughly 18 months from beginning to end to have those cases resolved. I cannot believe for a moment that it will be anything as quick for these. It’s bound to be longer.”

City have hired £10,000-anhour barrister Lord Pannick KC to represent them at the independent commission which will rule on the charges, while the Premier League has instructed Adam Lewis KC. Both are colleagues of De Marco at Blackstone Chambers. If found guilty, City could face a range of sanctions including fines, transfer bans, points deductions and even expulsion from the league. The club said they were “surprised” by the charges.

“I think there’d have to be a serious sporting sanction if the charges or most of them, particularly the ones alleging bad faith, are proven,” he added.

“I don’t think the Premier League would have brought such serious charges unless they themselves were gunning for a sporting sanction.”