Why Man City won’t face FFP punishment this season

Everton and Nottingham Forest have both been charged with breaching the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR).

They have both exceeded the allotted £105m of losses over a three-year period and have been told they will be punished within a maximum of three months.

Manchester City were charged with 115 alleged breaches in February 2023, dating from 2009 to 2018, but their case will not be heard for some time.

How can that be the case, when will the case be heard and what could Everton and Forest’s charges mean for City?

What are Man City’s 115 charges for?

City’s alleged breaches start in the 2009-10 campaign and finish in 2017-18.

They largely centre on either artificially inflated or undersold financial figures, related to general revenue, sponsor revenue and manager remuneration, particularly under Roberto Mancini.

Yet there are also breaches of Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations (FFP) between 2013-18 and PSR between 2015-18, as well as breaches of rules which require clubs to co-operate and assist the Premier League with its investigations.

Why might Forest and Everton be punished before Man City?

City’s alleged offences are far more varied and serious than what Forest and Everton have been charged with, but it is that complexity and significance which is causing the delay.

Under new regulations put in place by the Premier League, any club charged with a standard financial rule breach must have their case and any potential appeals heard within 12 weeks of the charges being brought.

This means any punishment given to Forest or Everton will be enforced within the season in which the breach has taken place.

But as City’s charges are not considered “standard”, there is no set timeframe in which they will be punished. They have also hired an extensive and highly capably superteam of lawyers, who will ensure the process runs as inefficiently and slowly as possible.

As football finance expert Dr Rob Wilson told i: “It’s the fact that it’s one year times 115. P&S calculations effectively punish clubs for one season’s breach. The document from the Everton charges was 190 pages, but it’s significantly less than what City’s will be.

“There’s just a huge amount of paperwork and litigation to get through. It’s just very, very complicated with lots of people. For a contemporary example, it’s like the Post Office scandal. What we’ll probably do is look back in 10 years, as we are with the Post Office now, and realise these failings that go right the way from the Premier League and the club to Uefa and up into government as well.”

“It demonstrates the lack of robustness that the Premier League and Uefa have had over the last 15/20 years in European football. I did some work with Der Spiegel back in 2017, and the evidence I’ve seen – you think, why hasn’t that been dealt with? That was seven years ago now.”

When will Man City’s FFP hearing take place?

Premier League CEO Richard Masters confirmed on Tuesday that a date has been set for City’s case to be heard, but refused to reveal when that was.

This is due to Premier League regulations which dictate that most elements of a hearing such as City’s are confidential.

Masters would have breached rules X25 and W82 had he said when the hearing will be held.

It was reported last year that the date could be as early as this August, although this is yet to be confirmed.

Masters said: “If any club, whether they’re current champions or otherwise, had been found in breach of the spending rules for the year 2022-23, they would be in exactly the same position as Everton or Nottingham Forest.

“But the volume and the character of the charges are being held in a completely different environment. There is a deadline set for that proceeding, unfortunately I cannot tell you when that is, but that is progressing.”

Could Everton and Forest’s punishments affect Man City?

Indirectly, yes. Everton’s 10-point penalty from the last financial period, which they are appealing, set an example of the hard-line approach the Premier League are taking against PSR breaches.

In large part this is an attempt to stave off the introduction of an independent footballing regulator, which would take away the Premier League’s power to impose its own financial controls and penalties.

It also sets a potential bar for City – if one breach is worth 10 points, what’s 115 worth? Even if they are only found guilty of five of the 115, does that correlate to 50 points? Is it 10 for the first, then five for every one after that?

If City were found guilty of at least some of their charges, it appears highly unlikely they would not be given a punishment which ended in relegation to the Championship at best, and below at worst, potentially also including stripping some of their titles.