Manchester City are appealing the guilty verdict in the 115 charges case
Manchester City's Etihad Stadium
Manchester City are appealing the independent commission's decision in their long-running case against the Premier League
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The Premier League might be returning in a matter of days but the spectre of Manchester City's 115 charges verdict continues to loom large over football.
City were found guilty of almost all the charges levied against them by an independent commission in a scathing report released last week. The core verdict said City created sham sponsorship agreements to the tune of £830million leaving the Blues facing a huge range of punishments,
City have now appealed the decision and that now means there will be a fresh three-person commission who will look into the case, but will only review the decision and not re-hear the case.
The three members will be convened by the Premier League's judicial panel and the league's rules say the hearing must take place within 12 weeks of the appeal being lodged, be held over no more than five days in one block, and a verdict delivered within 30 days of the hearing finishing. However, the complex nature of this case plus the length of time it's already taken could see that timescale extended.
There will also be a sanctions hearing to set the punishment for City and it's unclear whether that will take place before or after the appeal. City can also appeal the outcome of that sanctions hearing and some legal experts have speculated the case could easily run past the end of this season and potentially continue for years.
The Manchester Evening News' Chief City writer Simon Bajkowski, speaking on the latest episode of the Talking City podcast, has set out City's position as they hope to overturn the decision.
He said: "There was a mention that the club had a number of criticisms about the process and the way that the Premier League had brought everything against City and you imagine that would be run again.
"City mentioned an unsafe verdict and reading between the lines it's that it has taken so long for a verdict and how can you be so sure that witnesses were untrue or whatever if you are thinking back two years to when they were on the stand."
He added: "City are appealing the guilty verdicts because they think they have cause and they think they have evidence but also they have paid people very handsomely to be in the room for the 11 weeks when it took place. And the reason why it stunned people at City when they were found guilty of so many things is that these people are experienced in knowing how a case was going and the feeling after those 11 weeks was certainly not 'we've lost on every count.' So there is a sense that a different set of eyes might have a different view.
"But as much as there is process things, there is the core evidence that the Premier League say that City owners or executives secretly pumped equity into the club and disguised it as sponsorship money. And the club say that the sponsors did have that shortfall and couldn't pay it for themselves but they went to the Abu Dhabi government to get the money, so the money has come from the Abu Dhabi government rather than the club, which is not against the rules.
"And when City say they have irrefutable evidence, it is to show that. Their evidence shows that the money did not come from Man City to the sponsors to then go back into Man City's books. It came from the Abu Dhabi government to the sponsors which then paid Manchester City."
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