Manchester City and the Premier League have waited nearly a year to hear the verdict of an independent panel into the club’s 115 alleged financial irregularities.
Manchester City could learn their fate over financial fraud allegations before Christmas, according to a former Manchester City adviser. City and the Premier League have been waiting for a verdict on 115 charges since December last year, but repeated delays have dragged things out even further.
The hearing into City’s 115 alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations concluded in December 2024 after 12 weeks in court, but the independent panel has yet to publish its findings.
Like other players, City have been left in the dark, with manager Josep Guardiola saying in February that a verdict would arrive within “a month”. In the summer, it was reported that a conclusion could be reached in October.
Former Citi adviser Stefan Bolson said the verdict had been “imminent for some time” and “could be known before Christmas”. He also gave some insight into why it took so long.
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Bolson told talkSPORT that neither City nor the Premier League were to blame for the slow process. Instead, he suggested that committee members should have been paid to work exclusively on the case to ensure a speedy verdict.
The deliberations remain shrouded in secrecy, as Borson explained: “Well, no one knows, because even the parties themselves should have been informed by now. All the lawyers are surprised that there is no decision at this stage. It’s a mutual decision.”
“I’ll tell you who’s supporting it. It’s the committee that makes the decisions. They’re the ones holding the pens. They’re the people everyone is waiting for the decisions to be made.
“Well, no one knows. We know a long list – we can compile it from all the members of the Judiciary Committee – but we don’t know who’s on that list. We can make some guess that it’s probably two lawyers and maybe an accountant. But we don’t know who the members of the committee are and what they were instructed to submit by when.
“Given that so much time has passed and everyone is so taken aback and indecisive, I think we can now surmise that there was actually very little guidance given to them and that they were effectively not paid for their time from the moment the case was over.
“Perhaps the Premier and Manchester City should have agreed to a process with the committee that would effectively give them exclusive remuneration for deliberating and making a decision after the hearing was over, during a closed season, for example three months, or at worst six months.”
Citi has always denied any wrongdoing and has said it has a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence” to prove its innocence. The charges relate to alleged financial fair play violations from 2009 to 2018 and subsequent charges of refusing to cooperate with investigations.
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