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After an investigation which began back in 2018, Manchester City have been formally accused of breaching financial regulations by the Premier League.
City have long been alleged to have found their way around the regulations and now the Premier League have publicised their findings, which have been sent to an independent committee for a final ruling.
But what does all this mean?
Dating as far back as the 2009/10 campaign, the Premier League have accused City of failing to provide accurate financial records, particularly regarding inflated sponsorship revenue and reduced operating costs.
There are also allegations of failing to fully disclose financial agreements with previous managers and players, with the last charge in that respect coming from the 2015/16 season, on top of claims that City have failed to assist the Premier League’s investigation up until the moment the findings were published.
In February 2020, UEFA charged Man City with ‘serious breaches’ of Financial Fair Play regulations, which saw them handed a two-year ban from European competitions like the Champions League by UEFA.
City appealed the ruling to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and eventually saw the ban overturned, while a number of charges against them were dropped due to being ‘time-barred’ – outside UEFA’s statute of limitations.
They were, however, found to have failed to properly assist the investigation and were fined €10m.
90min spoke to leading sports lawyer and partner at Leathes Prior, Dan Chapman, for a detailed look at the Premier League’s allegations.
“The Premier League are not bound by time-limits which prevent them from charging in relation to alleged offences that go as far back as 2009, though one can fully expect Manchester City’s legal defence to make much of the historic nature of many of the allegations.”
Chapman explained: “If these allegations were upheld to their highest level, the Premier League have a wide range of sanctions available to them – ranging from a fine, to points deductions through to the ultimate sanction of expulsion from the Premier League. There is very little precedent for a case of this nature and gravity under Premier League rules – though under EFL rules, one can consider that QPR were fined circa £42m (which subsequently resulted in a settlement being reached between the club and the EFL).
“These charges would, if upheld, lead to sanctions from the Premier League alone. They are separate to the UEFA charges which have already been dealt with, which prompted the Premier League to conduct their own investigation.
“Manchester City have already been sanctioned by UEFA, and it is worth remembering that in that case the initial €30m fine and two-year ban from the Champions League was reduced on appeal to a fine of €10m only. On appeal, the fact that many of the charges were historic was very relevant, as UEFA had a five-year time limit at play. In theory, the Premier League have no such constraints.”
