Man City could be set to win back millions – if they are cleared of the Premier League’s financial charges.
Manchester City could be owed back millions from the Premier League – if the 115 charges verdict lands in their favour – as Merseyside rivals Liverpool and Everton watch on. The current champions are being investigated for allegedly breaching the Premier League’s financial rules between 2009 and 2018.
But even if City find themselves successful in the case, they will unlikely be able to counter-sue or take on other parties. There has been ongoing talk about would-be penalties for City should they be found to have committed the most serious allegations in a case that has been open for more than two years.
A three-man panel heard evidence from both sides last year and a decision is expected soon. Talk about relegation or expulsion from the top-flight or a significant points deduction have been heavily discussed and it will be wanted by some fans of clubs who have suffered at the hands of City over the past decade.
However, City have insisted their innocence from the start – and cleared their name at the Court of Arbitration for Sport when UEFA brought similar claims in 2020. If the outcome plays in City’s favour, they will be recovering most of the costs of their representation for the hearing.
Lord David Pannick KC, leading the defence since the charges were announced, can be costly. But whatever the outcome, the losing side is facing a hefty financial cost as a consequence.
“While we know from the published Everton costs hearing that there’s no restriction on the Independent Commission, in terms of costs, it is likely to be asked to, and will, treat the proceedings akin to High Court commercial litigation,” football finance expert Stefan Borson told The Manchester Evening News.
“In doing so, the general rule is that it is fair for the unsuccessful party to pay the successful party’s costs. This is especially so where a party fails to prove serious allegations of fraud where courts generally award the highest percentage of recovery (known as indemnity costs). Likewise, a finding of fraud against City is likely to give rise to the Premier League getting the vast majority of its costs from City.
“The complexity can arise where – as in City’s case – there is a range of allegations and where the decision might not be binary. In those cases, the courts (and therefore the IC) will look, as a matter of substance and reality, who has ‘won’.
“Then it considers whether, despite one party having won in the significant sense, there are any matters which the other party has succeeded on which took a significant amount of additional time and resource to contest. This might include the co-operation charges. From there it is for the party claiming costs to show that it’s costs claimed are reasonable and proportionate except if one side is awarded the indemnity costs as could be possible in this case.
“In summary, if City were to successfully defend all the substantive allegations regardless of the cooperation outcome, then they could expect to recover 80-90 per cent of their costs.”
