Manchester City charges: Appeal, sanctions and timelines explained

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Manchester City face Liverpool at Anfield today in the club’s first match since being found guilty of charges relating to breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period.

An independent commission ruled that City were guilty of all breaches, with the club benefitting from more than £900m of disguised funding between 2009 and 2018.

City launched an appeal on 1 October, claiming that they have an “irrefutable body of evidence”, and all parties are now awaiting the outcome of that appeal before the process continues.

That leaves the club and the league in a strange state of limbo until more is announced, with City sitting top of the league as they travel to Anfield.

With the appeal process required to conclude within 12 weeks of starting, we have a rough idea of when we can expect more news. But how did we get here in the first place, and what might happen in the coming months?

So, as a ‘starting point’ for anyone looking to re-visit or learn more about the Manchester City case, it helps to begin with the most recent revelations.

In short, an independent commission has found Manchester City guilty of the majority of the 115 charges relating to breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period, between 2009 and 2018.

The league released a statement saying that City are “guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules” and are also guilty of “the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the League’s investigation.”

The independent commission found that between 2009/10 and 2017/18:

In response, City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak released a statement to supporters, saying that “our confidence and intent in proving the club’s innocence is just as strong as when this began”.

Meanwhile, CEO Ferran Soriano made a video for City staff that suggested “the whole Premier League case against us is based on a single false accusation”, even going as far as to call the situation “the Premier League’s conspiracy theory”.

City have now appealed the guilty verdict, and it is expected that their most likely ‘defence’ will say that that, although their Abu Dhabi sponsors did require that funding to meet commitments, this came from central government – known as the Crown Prince Court (CPC) – and not from City’s legal owner, which was then under a company called Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG).

Premier League regulations state that the appeal process must be concluded within 12 weeks of the appeal being lodged, so that is 12 weeks from 1 October. That would take us to around Christmas, though the process may not need 12 weeks to complete. The panel must then deliver its verdict within 30 days of the final day of the appeal hearing.

That means the decision is expected at some point between January and March, though it could also go to arbitration.

As for sanctions, the original independent panel will meet to decide these, though there is no official time frame here. Nevertheless, they could come either before or after the verdict on the appeal is announced.

Nobody knows at this point, though the club do insist they have “irrefutable evidence”. Nevertheless, as Chief Football Writer Miguel Delaney writes:

“An appeal can only assess whether the initial panel made any procedural or legal errors. Legal experts already see this as difficult given that the decision was built on the strength of the evidence rather than points of law, and is already viewed as being “bullet-proof” on all sides.

“This isn’t a new hearing, either, and new evidence cannot be presented outside exceptional circumstances.

“It’s known that City intend to pursue a number of avenues, including matters of fact, law and procedure, that they believe make the decision “unsafe”. There have already been heavy implications that they will challenge the independence of the panel.

“From the publicly available details, though, there are considerable challenges. Or, as one legal figure puts, it, “they will have to convince the appeal board to ignore significant volumes of conflicting evidence”.

A range of sanctions could be applied if City’s appeal fails, and these are explained in detail in section W.64 of the Premier League Handbook.

In short, an “unlimited” fine, transfer bans, points deductions and even expulsion from the league are all potential punishments, while the club could also be stripped of titles won during the period in question.

In the case of expulsion, the league’s 20 member clubs would vote on whether to accept the sanction, and the motion would need 15 votes to go through.

The original independent panel will meet to decide on the sanctions, and it is impossible to say what they will decide at this point in time.

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