Update: Man City 115 charges timeline reality amid relegation threats and compensation fear News

Manchester City are still awaiting a verdict of their ongoing legal battle with the Premier League

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire believes the full extent of Manchester City’s ongoing legal battle with the Premier League may not see a complete resolution until years down the line.

The current reigning top flight champions were accused of breaching the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine year period from 2009 to 2018, as well as failure to cooperate with the Premier League’s investigation. City were originally accused of 115 charges back in 2023, though that is believed to be closer to the 130 mark.

Man City have strongly denied any wrongdoing and claim to have irrefutable evidence to back up their claim. City boss Pep Guardiola revealed in February that a decision could be announced last month, though that timeline has now been and gone, with recent reports claiming a summer announcement is more likely.

During the period in question, City won three Premier League titles and strongly deny any of the accusations put to them by the top flight’s governing body.

When asked about the recent delay, Maguire exclusively told the Manchester Evening News: “I was in the company of 300 sports lawyers a few nights ago and as you can imagine, this was hot topic. The conclusion was, that there’s an awful lot of evidence to review.

“What they seem to think will be the case, is there will be a judgement as to whether Man City are innocent or guilty of the individual charges and then there will be a separate announcement, which could take considerable amount of time, in which we will find out the punishment, if any.

“We don’t know if Manchester City are innocent or they’ll be proven guilty of any of the charges. There’ll likely be a further wait before the tariff is announced and we find out whether it’s a financial penalty or a points deduction, nuclear option which would be kicking them out of the league but I think most people think it’s unlikely.

“You then come to a further issue, if they are found guilty, could other clubs say they have suffered loss as a result. You can’t prove it perfectly, but what you could probably sue for is some sort of insurance value because we saw in the Carlos Tevez case in 2005, I think it was about £16million when they were relegated and Tevez kept West Ham up.”

Maguire would explain Derby County’s recent legal settlement with Wycombe Wanderers and Middlesbrough after breaching the EFL’s Financial Fair Play Rules, could act as a precedent for top flight clubs, should they wish to pursue compensation, if City were to be found guilty.

The Rams would settle with former Wycombe owner Rob Couhig who wanted compensation for Wycombe’s relegation in the 2020-21 campaign, while Derby stayed up on the final-day following 3-3 draw with Sheffield Wednesday. Boro also felt that they missed out on a spot in the Championship play-offs in 2018-19, with both Boro and Wycombe agreeing to a settlement.

“We saw two or three years ago when Derby County were accused of unusual accounting, effectively breaking PSR, that both Derby and Wycombe Wanderers came to a financial settlement as a result of that. It wasn’t what they were asking for.

“But the way that you would normally work this out, I think Middlesbrough finished seventh and Derby finished sixth, if Derby hadn’t done what they’d done, Middlesbrough would have finished sixth, can you prove that?

“If Middlesbrough had got into the play-offs they would’ve got on average a 20 per cent chance, because they were the bottom club in the play-offs, a 20 per cent chance of the money from the Premier League. You work that out and say this would be the additional cost of going to the Premier League, what would an insurance tell you?

“That was agreed between the two owners [of Derby and Wycombe] rather than the club itself.”

Man City’s alleged breaches of Financial Fair Play are over a much longer period than that of Derby County, with Maguire explaining that more clubs could try to pursue financial compensation if the reigning champions were found guilty.

“You’ve got nine years, in which a side finishing fifth in the Premier League could claim they missed out on a Champions League place,” Maguire added.

“We’ve got nine years in which a club could say they would have won the Premier League because they finished in second and ‘if we’d won the Premier League we would have got a bonus from Adidas, a bonus from our sponsors for this, we get more money from UEFA for winning the Premier League as well.’

“They put in a claim and as far as the legal consequences – if Manchester City lose, the legal issues have only just started, they have not finished.”

“Potentially,” Maguire said when asked if City would have to foot the aforementioned potential insurance claims of other clubs. “Again, listening to the lawyers, you’re looking at another two, three or four years worth of work.

“Burnley have just done that against Everton from two years ago and that’s been rumbling through. That’s just one club against one club. You could have a dozen clubs or a dozen claims against Manchester City.

“There are no winners here apart from the lawyers, I think the integrity of the game has suffered and reputation.”