The Citizens 'could now settle and take a penalty' as 'decision is in'

Man City are taking legal action against the Premier League as they wait to hear the outcome of their FFP hearing

Man City “would settle and take a penalty” now, according to a former Premier League chairman, amid the ongoing hearing into their alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial fair play rules.

A hearing to examine 115 Premier League charges issued against the club began on September 16 with the Citizens’ legal team pictured arriving at the IDRC, close to St Paul’s Cathedral in central London.

The hearing is reported to have been scheduled for 10 weeks, with the independent commission’s verdict not expected until the new year.

The charges facing Man City, who won a fourth straight Premier League title in May, date back as far as the 2009-10 season.

It is thought the club, who are also accused of failing to co-operate with an investigation, could face a range of punishments including a severe points penalty or even expulsion from the Premier League if found guilty.

Man City were charged by the league in February 2023 after a long investigation into allegations published by German magazine Der Spiegel in autumn 2018.

The Premier League club deny any wrongdoing and have previously said they have a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence” to support their stance.

But former Everton chairman Keith Wyness reckons Man City could “settle and take a penalty” and hopes that “common sense will prevail”.

Wyness told Football Insider: “I think the Premier League definitely want to get this over with and learn better lessons on how to regulate the game.

“Man City can’t keep fighting these battles. PR wise and from a global public image point of view, they know they’ve got to put this to bed.

“Everyone loves the football they’ve been playing, but there is a cloud looming over them. It’s in everyone’s interest to get this solved, it’s gone on for so long.

“But if there’s a settlement, there has to be a clear reason. It could be that both sides have got very good cases.

“I hope common sense will prevail. I think Man City would settle and take a penalty. I’d love to be a fly on the wall in these hearings.

“Nevertheless, it’s all going to come out in the wash – and hopefully it won’t drag on for years, as it may well do.”

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A vote to amend the Premier League’s associated party transaction (APT) rules was withdrawn ahead of a clubs meeting on Thursday, but reports insist the change would only have been a minor one.

Reports on Thursday linked the decision to pull a vote connected to the databank, a tool used by the league’s board to assess fair market value in commercial deals, to Man City’s legal challenge to the APT rules.

The reports said it indicated a potential victory for the club in the case but former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson reckons the Citizens are likely to have made a substantial loss in their case.

“From what I’ve heard, it seems the decision is in,” Borson told Football Insider. “It’s not been made public and it’s not been shared with the Premier League clubs.

“It may never be shared with the clubs. It may never be shared publicly and probably won’t be shared publicly.

“But I think if the decision is in, City at best have only got a very small concession because the rules on the Premier League website have not changed.

“If you were to go on there, the rulebook is still the rulebook from July of this year. That might change in the coming days.

“But in the absence of quite a wholesale change to that section of the rules, I would suggest the likelihood is if the result is in to the Premier League and that is what the press are reporting, then that means that City have substantially lost but have got one or two concessions in respect of various bits and pieces.

“That might be in respect of the databank, which is a system whereby all of the clubs have to submit their commercial transactions over £100,000, such that when new transactions are put forward under the associated party regime, the league has a basis on which to analyse them for fair market value.”

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