The big news of the week has been the serious charges made against Manchester City by the Premier League.
It doesn’t look good for Man City, who are facing a long list of charges relating to breaches of Financial Fair Play rules, though this legal case could drag on for years, according to a leading lawyer.
Nick De Marco KC discussed the case in an interview with the Times, and made it clear this was not something that would be resolved any time soon.
He said: “Having worked on the Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday financial fair play cases, both of which involved two charges over about two years and took about a year and a half from charges to the end, I would not be surprised if these proceedings took considerably longer given there are apparently 115 charges covering a period of 14 years.”
Ex-City advisor Stefan Borson added: “I think it is unlikely that the club will be able to appeal to the English courts due to the Premier League’s rules requiring its disputes to be dealt with by Commission and arbitration.
“The seriousness of these allegations is likely to mean it will be a long time before the disciplinary process can be completed — I would not be at all surprised if it took in excess of two years.
“Ultimately, I believe it will be very difficult for the Premier League to prove this scale of wrongdoing, but if it does, the consequences for the club and its directors, and, of course, the fans, will be devastating.”