Manchester City have confirmed they will appeal the Premier League's guilty verdict in the 115 charges case and a leading barrister has warned it could be years before a conclusion
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And so Manchester City's battle with the Premier League continues. The club's decision to appeal, confirmed on Friday, means there will now be a review hearing into the seismic judgement issued by the Premier League this week.
The core verdict found City guilty of all the serious financial charges levied against them with the Premier League issuing a damning decision that accused City of 'sham' contracts and inflating sponsorship agreements by more than £800million.
City responded with their own statement and again reaffirmed their innocence with the next step now an appeal. So when will that be heard, when will a decision be made and what might happen in the meantime?
The appeal will be heard in private by a new independent panel and according to Premier League regulations should last a maximum of five days in one block, conclude within 12 weeks of being heard, and a decision communicated within 30 days of that.
But there is no guarantee that timescale, which realistically pushes any decision into 2027, will happen given the complexities an unprecedented nature of the case.
In the meantime it is possible for City to be issued with a punishment via a sanctions hearing, although that seems likely to occur after the appeal has concluded given that decision would have a direct bearing on what punishment is served. City would then have the opportunity to appeal the sanction decision, potentially extending the case further.
That possibility means there is a realistic chance that the issue won't be concluded before the end of the current Premier League campaign, something that the league itself and other clubs will want to avoid.
But leading barrister Paul Gilroy KC believes the chances of this being resolved before May are slim and feels as though the case could go on for years yet.
Speaking on The Overlap, he said: "All of this is subject to an appeal and is subject legal challenges beyond the Premier League. And this is a party - Manchester City - which has shown itself perfectly willing to take this process external to the regulator, to go to the high court to get its remedies elsewhere,
"I've heard Jill (Scott) saying this morning it would be great to have this finished by the end of the season, good luck with that one. Never mind this season or the next or maybe the next five seasons. This is not going to end unless there is an accommodation. There have been cases where regulators or leagues have got together with football clubs in difficulty like this and they have agreed a settlement of all matters.
"Now this could be so serious that the regulator might say we have to have the interests of the Premier League at heart here, that is what it is all about, it is about the game and preserving the product that we have got and there is a necessity therefore for us all to get the round the table to sort this out because otherwise it is going to take a very, very long time."
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