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Man City appeal expected to go ahead with hearing anticipated within 12 weeks

General view of the Etihad Stadium, home of Manchester City
General view of the Etihad Stadium, home of Manchester CityAction Images via Reuters / Lee Smith

Manchester City are expected to press ahead ⁠with an appeal against findings that they breached Premier League financial rules by today's (Friday, October 2nd) deadline, ‌opening a fresh chapter in a case that has already ‌become one of the most significant in English ‌football.

The club has consistently denied wrongdoing, and indicated they ‌will challenge an independent commission's findings that they ‌used "sham" commercial contracts as part of schemes to inflate revenue and understate costs by more than £900 million ‌over nearly a decade.

'Irrefutable evidence'

City have said they ⁠have a body ‌of "irrefutable evidence" that will clear the club's name, and are ​expected to argue that the government of Abu Dhabi - not the club's owners - partly ​funded the sponsorship deals.

The Premier League's new fast-track rules state that an appeal hearing must be ⁠held within 12 weeks ​of an appeal being lodged, with a decision due within 30 days of the hearing concluding.

City, however, are expected to argue the rules were not ‌in place when they were originally charged in February 2023.

The breadth of the fallout facing Manchester City extends well beyond football sanctions.

Manchester City Verdict

The Premier League have confirmed that Manchester City have been found guilty of all charges related to breaching financial rules.

The charges relate to breaches between the 2008/09 and 2017/18 seasons, with the club found guilty of breaching the Premier League's financial rules.

An independent commission found that the club had artificially inflated their revenues and reduced costs by more than £900 million during the time period mentioned.

The ruling also states that Manchester City committed multiple breaches of its duties of co-operation and utmost good faith towards the Premier League, and that they were in 'significant breach' of both the Premier League and UEFA's spending limits.

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On Thursday, the chair of the Treasury Committee asked Britain's tax authority HMRC what action it was taking in response to the Premier League's findings.

Meg Hillier said she had written to HMRC Permanent Secretary JP Marks following ‌the publication on Tuesday of the independent commission ​ruling that the club had committed "well over 100 ‌individual breaches of the Premier League Rules across the course of many seasons."

Sports lawyers have predicted years of further litigation as rival clubs, players and agents assess whether they may have ⁠grounds to pursue ⁠compensation claims connected to ‌the case.

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