Manchester City were found guilty of breaching 114 of the 115 financial charges brought against them by the Premier League
Manchester City's Ruben Dias (left) and Erling Haaland
Manchester City's Ruben Dias (left) and Erling Haaland(Image: Martin Rickett/PA Wire)
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Barrister Paul Gilroy KC has explained the scenario which could allow Manchester City players to terminate their contracts with the club. This update has come following the Premier League announcing that City had been found guilty of all but one of the 115 charges against them for financial breaches.
City maintain their innocence and deny the charges brought against them, and are expected to exercise their right to appeal, with the deadline set for Friday.
As part of their announcement, the Premier League listed four areas to explain why City had been found guilty by the independent commission. One of these included City arranging ‘sham’ contracts with commercial partners.
Gilroy appeared on the latest episode of Stick to Football alongside Gary Neville, Ian Wright, Jamie Carragher, Roy Keane and Jill Scott.
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Wright put it to Gilroy how the ongoing case might impact players currently in City's squad, including the likes of Erling Haaland, Enzo Fernandez and Elliot Anderson, amongst others.
Wright asked: "Just talking about the individual players who don't know what's going on [in the boardroom], does he have a case?"
Gilroy then responded by explaining: "Definitely, yes, good question, that, on the players' perspective. Every contract of employment, whether it's a footballer or someone who works in a shop, has got an implied term in it. In other words, it's not written down. And the implied term we're talking about here is the term of trust and confidence.
"So if I work for you, you and I must have sufficient trust and confidence in each other to enable that relationship to work.
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"If you don't trust me, or I don't trust you, or if you call me a liar and a thief on Tuesday, I can't work for you on a Wednesday - trust and confidence.
"Now, a player could say 'You have breached the implied term of trust and confidence. You are my employer, you have acted in breach of that term, and that entitles me to say I'm ripping up my contract and I'm walking out.'
"That is a possibility; I've seen commentators saying unlikely, but it depends on so many things. What's the club going to say to the players? How do they sort it out financially? Etc, etc. But arguably, it's certainly a possibility."
Carragher then took the opportunity to jokingly ask a question about Haaland, where he asked: "So Liverpool could sign Haaland for free next week?"
Gilroy then answered: "Yeah, why not?"
Wright then ended the discussion by jokingly adding: "He might want to come to Arsenal, just because of his mates there..."