Nearly an entire year after their hearing with the Premier League, which began in September 2024, had concluded, reports have claimed there are 'growing murmurs' that Pep Guardiola and those associated with Manchester City are expecting to find out the decision before October 2025 comes to a conclusion.
City are facing accusations of 115 alleged breaches of financial regulations over a period of nine years spanning from 2009 – one year after their takeover by Abu Dhabi United Group – until 2018. Repeatedly, the club have vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
The club were first accused in February 2023, but the private hearing was carried out the following year, in September 2024, and that ran into December. A three-person Independent Commission panel took on both arguments from both sets of lawyers before milling over the evidence and reaching a verdict.
Huge Update on Manchester City's 115 Charges
manchester city
City's case has rambled on into another Premier League campaign, this time 2025/26, and that is despite suggestions – including from Guardiola himself – that a decision would be made public before the end of 2024/25. David Ornstein, in March, said: "The expectation at Man City has been 'spring', and if that's the case, we're into that.
"However, it'd also mean we could be waiting until late June! Plus, as long as we don't have anything firm from the Premier League, City or other parties privy to the matter, it's largely speculation and perhaps subject to change."
We're now into the latter stages of 2025 and a resolution has still not been found – but, according to a report from Miguel Delaney at The Independent, there are 'growing murmurs' from Premier League decision-makers that City's case could come to a close this month.
The charges are varied: from 54 counts of failing to provide accurate financial information to not providing details of player and manager payments. Both UEFA's Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations and the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability rules have been broken, hence why the entire process has turned into a tiresome waiting game.
Not only have City, who have spent a staggering sum on fighting their corner, been battling this case, but a separate legal battle – in relation to APT (Associated Party Transaction) rules – resulted in a settlement last month. Those involved in the 115-charge case have been 'locked away'; Clifford Chance’s lawyers representing City, for example, have essentially been bunkered away with those from the club.
Sheikh Mansour and Khaldoon Al Mubarak
The report also claims that many day-to-day employees at City have become 'inured' to the prospect of punishment, while there are some companies that have been tentative to put pen to paper on deals with the Etihad Stadium-based outfit as a means of covering their own back.
Richard Masters, CEO of the Premier League, has offered very little in terms of hints of what the concluding decision will be – but a final decision is reportedly set to be made this month. Delaney, however, has suggested there's now a feeling that the impact of the case – at least from a regulation point of view – could be 'significantly lessened'.