February 28 – English Premier League boss Richard Masters has refused to set a date on when the footballing world will learn the outcome of the 115 financial fair play charges against Manchester City.
In February 2023, the Premier League charged City with the alleged breaches of the rules made during the 2009-2018 time period.
Throughout the saga, City have maintained their innocence and insisted they had ‘irrefutable evidence’ which would clear their name.
That evidence was heard by an independent panel in London last September with the hearing, which lasted several weeks, held behind closed doors.
There is widespread anticipation that the verdict will be delivered before the end of the season with all manner of potential penalties if the club are found guilty.
Speaking at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit, Masters was asked when the defending league champions are likely to discover their fate.
“You won’t be surprised to hear that I won’t be talking about this, I can’t,” he explained. “I mean, the disciplinary panel has heard the case and they must be left alone now to consider their decision and given the time and space to be able to do that. That is as pretty much as far as I can go.”
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire believes an unprecedented points deduction will be the most likely outcome should City, the dominant force in English football for several years but now going through something of a rebuild, lose the case.
He told BBC Radio: “A points deduction would be the most likely outcome should the club be found guilty.”
“As for the quantum of points deduction, if Everton were initially given a 10 points deduction for going around about £10/12million over the limits in one particular season, I think, in order to set an example to the rest of football, it’s got to act as a deterrent.”
“We’ll probably be looking at somewhere in the region of 60 to 100 points, which would effectively guarantee relegation out of the Premier League and into the lower tiers of football in the EFL.”
Meanwhile, La Liga president Javier Tebas says he has reported City to the European Commission for alleged breaches of rules relating to state-owned companies.
Tebas – a long-standing critic of City – told the same FT summit that the complaint was made in 2023 and centres on his belief that “City have a structure that circumvents the rules” including a group of companies in the United Arab Emirates outside the City Football Group.
“We have reported Manchester City to the EU. We have the facts and figures,” he told the media. “We asked for City to be checked. It’s very important that all clubs are subject to the same transparency rules and governance on both the sporting and financial side.”
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