Anyone who has followed English football over the past 72 hours will have noticed that Manchester City has inspired a fresh crop of internet memes, with many suggesting that the club now requires the combined services of Saul Goodman, Harvey Specter and Annalise Keating – fictional lawyer characters from TV dramas Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul ; Suits ; and How to Get Away with Murder , respectively. The joke, however, has a rather serious legal backdrop.
According to reports, following a confidential 12-week hearing, the Premier League’s Independent Commission has found City guilty of most – 114 – of the 115 charges brought against them. The case, spanning more than a decade, is one of the most significant disciplinary proceedings in football history. City continues to deny wrongdoing.
What was City accused of? In simple terms, football’s financial rules are intended to prevent clubs from gaining an unlimited competitive advantage through unsustainable or artificial financing. Owners may invest heavily, but clubs must comply with rules governing their revenues, expenditure, and financial reporting. Commercial income must be genuine rather than artificially inflated through the owners’ related parties.
City’s charges broadly concern inaccurate financial information, including about sponsorship revenue; failure to disclose payments to players and managers; breaches of Union of European Football Associations – the governing body of European football – and the Premier League’s financial rules; and failure to cooperate with investigation.
And yes, City did hire the legal equivalent of football’s Avengers: Lord Pannick KC and Paul Harris KC were among their counsel. City also previously succeeded, at least substantially, in their 2020 Court of Arbitration for Sport – or CAS – appeal against a Uefa ban, where several allegations were time-barred under Uefa's five-year rule. The Premier League proceedings, however, operate under a different disciplinary framework.
What happens next? The commission can impose fines, points deductions, relegation, or even expulsion from the League. The rule book also has a “catch-all” sub-clause allowing the commission to hand down “such other penalty as it shall think fit” – which has triggered rival fans petitioning for the retrospective stripping of City’s titles, though the legal complications behind this mean chances are not likely. City is expected to appeal – against a 14-day time limit – with the case going before a three-person Appeal Board rather than CAS.
The lawyers in this line of work, it seems, still have plenty of work.
Victor Dawes SC is a practicing barrister. He is a former Chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association and currently Co-Chair of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre
