By Samuel A. September 16, 2024
The Premier League’s long-awaited hearing into Manchester City’s 115 alleged charges began on Monday. City had been charged with breaking financial fair play rules over a nine year period, which started in 2009 and went on until 2018.During that period, Man City won the Premier League three times.
According to the Premier League, Man City broke the rules over nine seasons by allegedly failing to provide accurate financial information.Among the charges against City are that they did not fully disclose their financial accounts that were made to one of their managers over a four year period. The suggestion is that there was a secret contract so one of the managers was getting paid much more than officially stated. The Premier League also alleged City did not comply with UEFA’s financial fair play rules over a five year period. They also allege City have not fully cooperated with the Premier League’s investigation.
The charges are as follows:
Failure to provide accurate and up-to-date financial information (2009-2018), mounting up to 54 charges.
Failure to provide accurate financial reports for player and manager compensation (2009-2018) attracting 14 charges.
Failure to comply with UEFA’s regulations, including Financial Fair Play Regulations, attracting 5 charges.
Breaching Premier League Profitability and Sustainability regulations (2015-2018), having 7 charges.
Failure to cooperate with Premier League investigations (2018-2023), attracting 35 charges.
These several charges totaled up to 115 charges.
According to Premier League rules, any punishment could be a points deduction or even the threat of expulsion from the Premier League, which is the worst that could happen.
It is expected that the formal hearing with the independent commission will go on for up to two months, with both the Premier League and City to make lengthy legal representations, outlining their case. The independent commission will then go away and consider all the evidence before making their decision. That process is expected to take several months because of the amount of charges, and the amount of information to be reviewed, which would also take a while, before the final verdict.
Pep Guardiola said at the time the charges were announced he was fully convinced City were innocent. More recently, he said he is happy the hearing would start soon, and that he hoped there would be a swift conclusion. “I am happy it starts soon and hopefully it finishes soon for the benefit of all of us,” he said in a press conference late August. “Especially for the club but for all the other Premier League clubs, like for all the people that don’t wait for the sentence. I wish from deep in my heart to go to the trial, the independent panel, and I say it again, independent panel, and as soon as possible release what happened, and we will accept like always we have done.”
When asked if he was concerned the situation could impact the performance of City players, Guardiola said: “No, we have been three or four years talking about that.”
