Manchester City’s hearing – regarding their alleged 115 breaches of Profit and Sustainability rules – will begin on Monday.
City have been charged with breaking profit and sustainability rules around 100 times over a nine-year period, which started in 2009 and went on until 2018. In that period City, who deny all charges, won the Premier League on three occasions.
Pep Guardiola’s side could face, if found guilty, potential punishments of relegation, points deductions or fines.
The investigation started in 2018, when Der Speigel published their Football Leaks documents. The leaks accused City of funnelling money from the club’s owners through sponsors in the United Arab Emirates.
City have also been charged by the Premier League with failure to provide accurate financial information and a failure to provide accurate details for player and manager payments. They have denied all charges.
City will now defend their case at an independent hearing. The hearing could go on for two months, and a verdict isn’t expected until next spring.
The defending champions, of the 115 charges, face 54 allegations of failure to provide accurate and up-to-date financial information to the league from 2009/10 to 2017/18.
City will also be defending 14 charges for a failure to provide accurate financial reports for player and manager compensation for those seasons. There are also 35 charges for failures to comply with Premier League investigations from December 2018 to the present day.
City have denied all wrongdoing – and they’ve launched their own legal case against the Premier League.
According to The Times, City are looking to end the Premier League’s Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules, which they claim are unlawful. The rules, introduced in December 2021, are designed to maintain competitiveness by preventing clubs from inflating deals with companies linked to their owners.
City have accused the Premier League of “discrimination against Gulf ownership” – after the rules were implemented shortly after Newcastle United’s Saudi takeover.