Manchester City finally submit their appeal against guilty verdict on Premier League rules breach
KEIR RADNEDGE ANALYSIS —–Manchester City have appealed formally against the independent commission’s guilty verdict over alleged breaches of Premier League financial rules. The club confirmed it lodged its appeal at 7pm on Thursday, one day ahead of the deadline.
The Premier League has confirmed receiving the appeal and insists the hearing would stay private until the outcome could be published.
The commission found that between 2009-10 and 2017-18 City arranged “sham” contracts with commercial partners as part of a disguised funding scheme that artificially inflated revenues by £830m. It also found the club broke well over 100 regulations and failed to cooperate with the league’s investigation.
City have not explained the timing but earlier statements from the league have suggested that the club tried to delay or even prevent publication. Under the rules City would have had 12 days in which to appeal so most of the time inbetween may have been taken up with that complication.
City also have strategic reasons to take their time. Pleading the grounds carefully now matters more than filing early. A rushed submission could be exposed later, and the club is also weighing a procedural argument about which rules apply.
City say the opinion contains “clear material errors, of law, principle and fact” and is unsafe. They insist they are innocent and claim a body of “irrefutable” evidence supports their position.
The central argument is expected to be about who paid for the sponsorships. City are reportedly prepared to argue that the extra funding came from the Abu Dhabi government rather than the club’s owners.
High bar
That is not new. The commission rejected this argument, calling it an explanation the club concocted well after the event to conceal the reality of the scheme. City will need to show the panel made an error in reaching that conclusion, which is a high bar.
The club has also questioned the process itself. Its statement said it had respected due process for eight years on the basis that the Premier League board and executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator. Arguments are likely about fairness, delay and whether the league has the legal right to be judge and jury.
This issue was debated in the Super League case at the European Court of Justicfe when it was decided that a sports body could be both competition organiser and regulator as long as the procedures were in order.
Under the Premier League’s new fast-track rules, the City appeal process should be quick – in theory.
New panel
The appeal must be completed within 12 weeks of the filing, which takes it to the week before Christmas. The hearing can last no longer than five days, in a single block, and a different three-person panel then has 30 days to decide, pointing to the third week of January.
That timetable may not hold. City could argue the faster rules should not apply because they were charged in 2023 and heard in 2024, before those rules existed.
These rules were designed so that clubs, where possible, could be punished in the same season as the breaches. If City win that argument, a final outcome could slip well into 2027.
###
