Editor’s note: This article has been re-published a year on from the Premier League’s decision to charge Manchester City
It is a year since the Premier League handed Manchester City a charge sheet without precedent: 115 breaches of its financial rules across nine different seasons.
The like had never been seen before. As well as being charged with failing to disclose accurate financial information and managerial remuneration details during a period that began their rise to the summit of English football, Manchester City were also alleged to have breached the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) during three seasons from 2015-16 to 2017-18.
The wide-ranging charges have been strenuously denied by City, who last year said they would look forward to this opportunity to “put to rest, once and for all,” a protracted investigation that had begun in 2018.
Yet 365 days on, against a backdrop of other top-flight clubs forced to answer for their financial misdemeanours, the reigning Premier League champions are still to even see a hearing begin.
Why are Manchester City being made to wait so long to learn their fate?
This, in short, is a case like no other. The financial rule breaches City stand accused of began in 2009 and extended through to 2018, effectively covering the first decade of Sheikh Mansour’s reign as the club’s owner. Three Premier League titles were won during the period under investigation, as well as an FA Cup and three League Cups.
City have already fought legal action from UEFA following the initial reporting of German newspaper Der Spiegel in November 2018 that first highlighted their alleged wrongdoing. That initially resulted in a two-year ban from UEFA competition in February 2020 before it was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) five months later.
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City have never blinked in their defence, insisting they have followed regulations. The Premier League, though, has not been convinced and, following the formal charges being delivered in early February, it will now be the task of an independent commission to pass judgement.
That reality has hung over City for more than 11 months and, in all likelihood, it could be another year before the case reaches its eventual conclusion.
Neither the Premier League nor the club have offered any indication when a hearing will be held as a confidential process that includes the compilation of witness statements continues, but it is its complexity and breadth that denies a swift resolution.
City’s charges include accusations of failing to disclose accurate financial information, “in particular with respect to its revenue (including sponsorship revenue), its related parties and its operating costs”, and not fully providing managerial remuneration details for a four-year period that saw Roberto Mancini at the helm.
City have also been charged with breaching UEFA’s financial fair play (FFP) rules, as well as the Premier League’s PSR. A final layer of litigation comes from the Premier League’s claims that City did not cooperate fully with investigations in “the utmost good faith”.
Unlike Everton’s breach of PSR in 2021-22, when the club was referred to an independent commission and then deducted 10 points within eight months, the 115 charges could not be answered as quickly.
Everton’s formal hearing, held a month before they were informed of their points deduction, lasted only five days and, by direct comparison, was a straightforward case. The weight of evidence and witness statements that will be put forward in Manchester City’s case points to that process lasting months.
The charges facing City, who have appointed so-called ‘super-silk’ Lord David Pannick KC to mount their defence, also fall outside of the new rules introduced by the…
This article was originally published by a theathletic.com . Read the Original article here. .