FINAL VERDICT: Court provides Fresh update on City 115 charges as FFP releases yet another official statement this morning

A football finance expert has provided a fresh update as the wait for a verdict on Manchester City’s alleged breaches of Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules continues.

City were initially charged with 115 alleged breaches of FFP back in February 2023. That number increased to 130 and a hearing into the charges against the Premier League side concluded in 2024.

The charges relate to the:

City also face multiple charges accusing them of failing to co-operate with the Premier League’s investigation between December 2018 and February 2023.

Wait For Verdict Goes On
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It was rumoured in May that a verdict was set to ‘arrive within weeks’, but there’s still no sign of an imminent verdict two months’ later.

Indeed, Man City broke the British transfer record on July 2 after signing England international Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest in a deal worth £116 million.

Asked if it’s fair that City have signed Anderson despite the charges hanging over them, football finance expert Stefan Borson told talkSPORT: “Well, it’s fair because what do you want City to do? To stop everything whilst the whole case was ongoing?

“The case has been ongoing for many years. It’s not acceptable, but there’s no decision in the case.

“That’s clearly completely ludicrous that we are now 20 months on from the end of the hearing and we don’t have a decision, assuming there is no decision.

“The last I heard was probably the end of June and there didn’t seem to have been a decision.

“It may have come since, but even so 19, 20 months, we are now at the edges of whatever happens in any of these cases.”

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Verdict Could Still Be Several Months Away
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Borson says it could still take several months before a decision is announced, with arbitration cases lasting up to 24 months in some instances.

Question 1 of 5
Over which seasons are Manchester City alleged to have failed to provide accurate financial information, including details of player and manager payments, in the Premier League case?

Between 2015-16 and 2023-24
Between 2009-10 and 2017-18
Between 2005-06 and 2013-14
Between 2012-13 and 2020-21
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He continued: “I spoke to a KC (King’s Counsel) recently and said, ‘have all your cases, all your litigation, courts of appeal, wherever, what’s the longest you’ve waited for a decision?’

“And he said, ‘five months’ and even that he had contact with the judges being in touch with him. Arbitration is different and some arbitration does go to 24 months.

“But it does put the judgement when it comes in a territory where if it goes against one of the parties, they may well say, ‘look, this is just unsafe now. This has just been too long. You’re not close enough to the evidence that you heard two years ago, nearly, to be able to conclude fairly on this case.’

“So it just opens up another issue for the panel. That’s obviously a very difficult appeal to win, but it’s the sort of thing that people are going to run these silly arguments or these challenging arguments if the case goes against them.

“And if you want 19, 20 months, you increase the chance of people making these sort of arguments. I don’t see that there’s any justification for how it’s taken so long.”