Man City FFP: One sanction ‘very unlikely’ after ‘condemned to relegation’ claim as ‘timeline’ revealed | OneFootball

A new ‘timeline’ for Manchester City’s FFP case has been revealed, and there is a “strong chance” of a verdict “before the summer”.

Man City are facing more than 100 charges of alleged breaches of the Premier League’s Financial Fair Play regulations.

At the start of 2022, the club were referred to an independent commission after the Premier League’s four-year probe into their alleged conduct between 2009 and 2018.

Pep Guardiola‘s side face severe sanctions if they are proven guilty, but it has been business as usual at the Etihad in recent years, with them confident of their innocence.

Still, the FFP situation has been a dark cloud hanging over Man City and a recent report claimed they are going to be ‘condemned to relegation’ with a 60-point deduction ‘before the end of the season’.

Otherwise, very little has been said about the case in recent months, but football finance expert Stefan Borson thinks such a points deduction is “very unlikely” this season as there will be a “split trial” with the initial verdict based purely on liability.

“It depends what that means really,” Borson told Football Insider when asked whether a verdict could be announced before the end of this season.

“The idea that there’s going to be a points deduction is unlikely because of everything we’ve spoken about before in terms of the process where you have two parts to it, one liability, one sanction, and sanction can’t come until you’ve established liability, i.e. whether they did it or not and what they did.

“It’s very unlikely that they would have spent let’s say a quarter of the hearing talking about sanction when there’s such a range of outcomes that were there, so the strong likelihood is that it was a split trial.

“That information has come via The Lawyer, which is very well connected, particularly with the barristers who may be involved with their clerks, their chambers, so I would think that is reliable.

“That means that the only decision that we’re waiting for right now is one on liability, whether they did it or not.”

Borson also pointed out that a further delay looms regarding a potential sanction as part of the ‘timeline’, though there is a “strong chance” of an announcement “before the summer”.

“The bit that most people still don’t realise is once that comes in, that will be very long in itself and will need people to be given the time to digest it,” Borson added.

“But then it also means that the hearing that follows on the sanction is going to take some time to accommodate. Clearly, the barristers who are involved are going to have to find time in their diaries.

“The independent commission are going to have to find time in their diaries, and then there’s also the question of whether there’s going to be an appeal that sits before the sanction part.

“Overall, there’s a strong chance to be honest that we do get something on liability before the summer, but I don’t know what that means anymore.”