Manchester City have been embroiled in legal disputes with UEFA and the Premier League for 12 years and they are so determined to clear their name, and the 115-charge case is so big that it could still be years before the saga ends.
According to reports last week, an independent court ruled in the case and Sky Sports News understands that the process is moving to the appeal stage.
In 2014, City paid a £49m fine for breaching UEFA’s financial fair play rules and in 2020 were handed a two-year ban from European competition and fined €30m for breaching the rules again. The ban was overturned at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, where City were cleared of disguising the owner’s funding as sponsorship income.
The win could give City fans hope they can win again when their Premier League appeal is heard by a new three-man panel.
If the appeal goes against them, they will not be able to go to CAS, but there is a strong possibility that City’s owners will go to the High Court to clear their name.
In 2014, City chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak said he would spend £30m on the world’s top 50 lawyers and sue UEFA for the next 10 years rather than lose the FFP case. In his open letter to City fans on Saturday, he sounded as determined as he was 12 years ago: “The Premier League process still has a long way to go and our belief and determination to prove the club’s innocence is as strong as when it began.”
Al-Mubarak means what he says and there is so much at stake that City will do whatever it takes to clear their name. Meanwhile, the sport’s best-known lawyers are holding back their opinions until the full verdict is issued. Friday’s leak, which led to reports that City had lost 114 of 115 chargescould end up being used as evidence in the City’s legal battle to prove that, in their view, the entire process was not fair and impartial.
At the heart of all the legal challenges City have faced is the question of how they got so big and successful so quickly. City’s owners have been accused of investing a lot of money in the club and disguising it as sponsorship income. City have always insisted they have irrefutable evidence to prove they did not break the rules.
City will face serious sanctions if they fail to clear their name and the case will continue to cast a shadow over Enzo Maresca and his players until it is finally resolved.
The city’s reputation, and that of their owners, depends on it and the final judgment will also have implications for relations between Abu Dhabi and the UK. The two countries have close ties and shared commercial and diplomatic interests, but the strength of that relationship will be tested if City eventually break the rules.
City’s legal dispute with the Premier League would never have existed had it not been for documents obtained illegally by convicted Portuguese hacker Rui Pinto. From City’s perspective, these leaked internal documents are “out of context material allegedly hacked or stolen” which was used in an “organised and clear attempt to damage the club’s reputation”.