By Lori Ewing
MANCHESTER, England, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Manchester City's case over breaches of Premier League financial rules could run for years, lawyers say, as appeals and further claims threaten to prolong a saga that has already shaken English football's financial landscape.
The Premier League said on Tuesday that City had used "sham" commercial contracts as part of schemes to inflate revenue and understate costs by more than £900 million ($1.2 billion) over nearly a decade.
Even with a ruling
now delivered, however, major questions remain unresolved, including when any sporting sanctions would take effect and whether an appeal by City could delay their implementation.
At the heart of the case is the League's financial rulebook, which limits how much clubs can spend relative to the revenue and profits they generate. The League alleged City inflated commercial income and understated costs over a number of seasons, which would have made the club appear financially stronger and potentially enabled it to spend more on player transfers and wages while remaining within the rules.
The case has hung over the Premier League for years, raising wider questions about financial governance, competitive integrity and the League's ability to hold its most powerful clubs to account.
"Unless the Premier League take control and bang their heads together, and say, 'right, this is it,' it could take years," Yasin Patel, a leading London-based sports law barrister, told Reuters.
"There's clubs now looking to sue for loss of income, a bit like the Burnley-Everton situation. That hasn't been resolved yet, there's an ongoing appeal."
He was referring to the decision taken by the Premier League in June to order Everton to pay Burnley around £35 million ($47 million) in compensation for the impact of Everton breaching financial rules in 2022 when Burnley were relegated. Everton rejected the findings and their appeal is to be heard in January 2027.
"There's others who will have been potentially promoted. There's trophies that were lost, European places that could have been won or lost, even certain players signing for Man City, who may have been signed by Hull or wherever, they lost the opportunity of that player," Patel said.
An independent commission found City guilty of all charges relating to breaches of the League's financial rules over nine seasons, as well as three of four charges concerning their failure to co-operate with the investigation.
The club deny wrongdoing and have until Friday to lodge an appeal, which they have said they will do.
No sanction has yet been imposed, leaving unresolved the potential consequences for a club who have dominated English football over the past decade.
It is unclear whether the sanctions will be announced before the appeal is heard, and whether they would take immediate effect, with a league representative telling Reuters they could not discuss the process for confidentiality reasons.
"I reckon their sanctions will be heard sooner rather than later," said Patel. "But then potentially, because they'll be appealing a decision, the sanctions won't come into play until after the appeal is heard."
A senior official in one of Europe's major leagues believes the issue could have major implications for the Premier League, saying that it could suffer as a product if many clubs start going after City.
Alex Goodchild, a sports lawyer at Bray & Krais in London, said the various compensation claims created an "extremely messy" and complex web of proceedings.
"Everton-Burnley were two single clubs," he said. "In theory, you could have lots of different compensation claims being run on different tracks with different commissions... so it opens up the scope for inconsistency and fragmentation across claims.
"I have seen suggestions from lawyers that maybe the Premier League will try to centralise and have one single sort of compensation place for the various parties involved (similar to a class action suit)."
TOP PRIORITY
Football law expert Stefan Borson thinks the appeal, which will be heard by a new three-person panel, will be the top priority.
"(I believe) that they've decided that the most expeditious way to get an outcome here is to say, right, there's the findings on the liability phase let's test those on appeal. Then we can come back and deal with sanction later. But then of course, probably suspended pending the appeal."
Patel raised the prospect of criminal proceedings.
"If they're going to be saying that certain top personnel have lied and misled the Premier League, the question is then: 'Are these fit and proper owners as per the rules of the Premier League?' Are they going to say 'You are not fit and proper owners of Manchester City, and therefore you have to sell the club'."
He suggested the case could move beyond the realm of football regulation.
"If these findings are correct, and fraud and (false) statements have (taken place), then is that a matter that should be investigated by the police?"
Goodchild suggested the apparent leak of the league's decision on Friday could hand City ammunition for a procedural challenge.
"The leak does, to an extent, lend them some material because it is possible that an official at one of City's close rivals could have leaked this to haul Man City into the sort of court of public opinion and give them terrible publicity," he told Reuters.
The prospect of relegation raises questions about City's talent-laden squad. It is common for players to have relegation release clauses in their contracts, Patel and Goodchild said, and in the event of relegation another club could buy a player's registration at a discounted price.
($1 = 0.7526 pounds)
(Reporting by Lori Ewing, additional reporting by Iain Axon, editing by Ed Osmond)
