Plenty of “time will pass before a sanction is decided” against Premier League club Manchester City for its financial charges, while the club itself continues “to deny wrongdoing and could appeal.” In between, the Premier League “resides in another bout of purgatory.” The “most successful English team of the past decade is mired in a reputational crisis and the ramifications may stretch far and wide.” On the “most basic level, we do not know whether City will even start next season as a Premier League club.” When the appeals are complete, if Man City is “still judged to be guilty” to the extent reported, it also “begs very challenging questions about the future of its owners and executive team.” Any judgement on Man City “may also be perceived as a judgement on the United Arab Emirates and its Abu Dhabi ruling family.” On Saturday, Man City Chair Khaldoon Al Mubarak said that the club intends “to fight on.” He wrote on the club’s website, “Our confidence and intent in proving the club’s innocence is just as strong as when this began” (THE ATHLETIC, 9/27).
Despite Friday’s breaking news that an initial judgment had been reached, finding City guilty on the vast majority of the 115 charges, legal proceedings “appear set to continue for at least another year yet.” The Premier League initially announced they were charging Manchester City in Feb. 2023. The hearing itself did not begin until Sept. 16, 2024. By lasting almost 21 months, the City case is “touching the upper verges of the longest cases ever heard in British arbitration.” For context, this case will not have been the only matter worked upon by the three-person panel during that period. City, as well, “launched several other independent proceedings of their own against the Premier League.” As for what’s next, there are “multiple legal avenues which have not yet been opened yet, let alone closed.” Proceedings “still to come include: an appeal hearing, a sanction hearing, negotiations over the release of the initial judgment, and any separate wrangling over which party is liable for the vast legal costs incurred by the case” (THE ATHLETIC, 9/25).
The London TIMES’ Martin Samuel wrote under the headline, “Man City verdict: A great victory — but ‘best league in world’ reduced to rubble.” Samuel noted cheaters “should not prosper, that much is obvious.” Samuel: “City cheated and the punishment must be severe. Yet, with that, comes an array of further consequences … a series of explosions with impact far beyond one club. What remains of this league is now rubble. It is a reputational dumpster fire. The Premier League will feel the good guys have won but, in doing so, almost two decades of English football is scorched earth” (London TIMES, 9/25).