A senior figure at Manchester City allegedly left club executives stunned following the Premier League's shareholders meeting this week as Arsenal watches on.
The Times reports that Simon Cliff, the club's legal chief, seemed to challenge the motives of certain clubs in recent votes. Although Cliff did not name any clubs, he informed Premier League's chairwoman, Alison Brittain that he wanted his intervention to be noted in the minutes.
The report adds that Cliff's comments dominated the conversation among club executives after the meeting concluded. It was placed under the 'any other business' section of the agenda.
His comments comes at a time clubs await the outcome to City's legal case with the Premier League. The current champions were charged with 115 alleged breaches of top-tier financial regulations in February 2023 but have firmly denied the charges.
With a verdict is expected soon, Pep Guardiola said on Friday: "No, no. We've been dealing with this for over a year, so nothing changes with one more week, or two more weeks, or three more weeks, or four more weeks."
Speaking at the Financial Times' Business of Football Summit last month, Premier League CEO Richard Masters was asked to address when City would learn their fate. However, he declined to comment on the potential verdict date.
"You won't be surprised to hear that I won't be talking about this. I can't," he said.
"I mean, the disciplinary panel has heard the case - and they must be left alone now to consider their decision and given the time and space to be able to do that. That is as pretty much as far as I can go."
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Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Jesus with the Arsenal Therapy Dog Win during the Arsenal Men's team group shoot at London Colney on September 18, 2023
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