The hearing into Manchester City’s 115 alleged breaches of Premier League financial regulations has reportedly been brought forward to next month.
The planned November start of an independent commission, scheduled to last 10 weeks, has been moved to mid-to-late September, with a verdict likely to be delivered early in 2025, according to The Times.
The newspaper says the outcome of a separate legal case which City brought against the league’s associated party transactions rules – in which clubs strike sponsorship or revenue deals with businesses linked to their owners – is due in the next fortnight.
That, it is claimed, has allowed the hearing into the 115 charges – which City deny – to be brought forward, barring any further legal delays.
City were charged in February 2023, following an investigation by the German publication Der Spiegel, with the alleged breaches taking place from 2009 to 2018.
They largely centre on either artificially inflated or undersold financial figures, related to general revenue, sponsor revenue and manager remuneration, particularly for Roberto Mancini who oversaw their first title win in 2011.
Yet there are also breaches of Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations (FFP) between 2013-18 and the Premier League’s profit and sustainability regulations (PSR) between 2015-18, as well as breaches of rules which require clubs to co-operate and assist the Premier League with its investigations.
It is still unknown how heavily City could be punished if found guilty, but points deductions and even relegation are thought to be possibilities.
Neither the Premier League nor Manchester City have commented.
Why has it taken so long for the Man City hearing to take place?
There has been heavy criticism of the long delay in starting the hearing, especially with Everton and Notttingham Forest swiftly punished for their breaches of PSR rules last season and the fact City have continued winning so many trophies.
Speaking to i about the delay in April, football finance expert Dr Rob Wilson said: “It’s the fact that it’s one year times 115. PSR calculations effectively punish clubs for one season’s breach. The document from the Everton charges was 190 pages, but it’s significantly less than what City’s will be.
“There’s just a huge amount of paperwork and litigation to get through. It’s just very, very complicated with lots of people. For a contemporary example, it’s like the Post Office scandal. What we’ll probably do is look back in 10 years, as we are with the Post Office now, and realise these failings that go right the way from the Premier League and the club to Uefa and up into government as well.”
“It demonstrates the lack of robustness that the Premier League and Uefa have had over the last 15/20 years in European football. I did some work with Der Spiegel back in 2017, and the evidence I’ve seen – you think, why hasn’t that been dealt with? That was seven years ago now.”
Additional reporting by Press Association
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/HRwyYMq
Post a Comment