Manchester City's financial breaches case could take four years to resolve

The Premier League’s disciplinary case against Manchester City is likely to take between two and four years to be completed, according to one of Britain’s leading sports lawyers.

The Premier League announced on its website on Monday that the club have been charged with breaching 115 different regulations over 14 years, from 2009-10 to this season.

Nick De Marco KC — who represented Mike Ashley in a lengthy legal case when he was trying to sell Newcastle United and who also defended Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday on financial fair play charges — said that the number of charges facing City and the length of time they cover made the case incredibly complex. He believes the process will take between two and four years.

De Marco said: “Having worked on the Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday financial fair play cases, both of which involved two charges over about two years and took about a year and a half from charges to the end, I would not be surprised if these proceedings [involving City] took considerably longer given there are apparently 115 charges covering a period of 14 years.”

Stefan Borson, the chief executive and general counsel of Watchstone Group who previously worked with City as a financial adviser, has also worked on lengthy legal cases. He believes it is unlikely that City would be able to take any appeal to the English courts but that the case will still take years to reach a conclusion.

Borson said: “These allegations appear to be about as serious as they get for a company. I think it is unlikely that the club will be able to appeal to the English courts due to the Premier League’s rules requiring its disputes to be dealt with by the [independent] commission and arbitration.

“The seriousness of these allegations is likely to mean that it will be a long time before the disciplinary process can be completed — I would not be at all surprised if it took in excess of two years.

“Ultimately, I believe it will be very difficult for the Premier League to prove this scale of wrongdoing, but if it does, the consequences for the club and its directors — and, of course, the fans — will be devastating.”

If the charges are proved it could lead to a range of sanctions under the league’s rule W.51, including a deduction of points, with the ultimate sanction being expulsion from the Premier League.

The charges have been referred by the league to an independent disciplinary commission, which will hold all hearings in private.

The breaches in financial reporting relate to nine seasons, from 2009-10 to 2017-18. The club have also been charged with not co-operating with an investigation and not handing over documents as required over five seasons, from 2018-19 to 2022-23.

Charges include not providing full details of the manager Roberto Mancini’s pay, as required, over the four seasons he was at the club from 2009 to 2013, and not providing full details of players’ remuneration over six seasons, from 2010-11 to 2015-16.

City have said that they were “surprised” by the charges and have a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of [their] position”