Man City should not be punished for 130 alleged breaches of FFP rules amid ‘legal minefield’

Manchester City should have their 130 charges for breaking financial rules dropped, there are worse crimes in football.

That’s the opinion of talkSPORT’s chief football anchor Adrian Durham, as fans continue to wait for a potentially historic ruling.

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It was announced in February 2023 that the Premier League charged City with over 100 breaches of financial rules from 2009 to 2018.

An initial 115 charges were imposed, but the total actually stands at 130, with the hearing commencing in September 2024.

Should they be found guilty, City could face a financial penalty, points deduction, loss of titles, or even expulsion from the Premier League.

Forget about it

However, when speaking on the latest episode of Fiery Fridays for the talkSPORT Daily podcast, Durham said: “Manchester City’s charges should be dropped.

“Hear me out here, all they did was put money into a football club, so they could spend money on their club, on their team to be competitive,” he explained. “To sign players to entertain the fans, and there are far worse things going on in football.

“So financially, just briefly with the history… City were miles behind other clubs when they were taken over, so they had to rapidly play catchup. It’s funny how the reaction changes from club to club when this thing happens.

“So Wrexham, for example. When the owners of Wrexham came in and injected abnormal amounts of money into a non-league club, where there were no rules down there by the way, they’re seen as cool and heroic, and it’s a great story, and there’s a Hollywood blockbuster ending.

“But they caused havoc with wage levels in the National League and in the lower leagues of the EFL.

“Even bigger than that, Leicester City, not the current problems they’ve got, but they broke financial rules on their path to the Premier League title.

“They were found guilty of FFP breaches in the 2013/14 season when they won the Championship a couple of seasons before they won the Premier League title. Everyone forgets about that, because it damages the narrative of little old Leicester achieving the dream.”

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Five worse crimes than City charges

Durham even went as far as to suggest five other instances of what he perceives as football offences that are worse than the 130 charges.

1. “Liverpool raising ticket prices.”
2. “Chelsea’s owners having no respect for their fans with the way they run the club.”
3. “Arsenal’s time-wasting tactics killing football entertainment.”
4. “Burnley’s pathetic effort which they claim is an attempt to stay up every other season.”
5. “VAR, PGMO should be charged for spoiling the fans’ enjoyment.”

“So, these are all things far worse than Manchester City putting money into football, and that’s money that filters down into the game through the academy system, into the women’s team, City are about to win the WSL title, and to clubs in the lower leagues.

“And other Premier League clubs as well. Just this season, Manchester City have given a lot of money to Bournemouth, to Crystal Palace and to Burnley.

“Why have people got a problem with this? Because somebody made up some crazy financial rules years ago and they’re sticking to them, and they’re hammering Man City for them.

“There’s no reason, just drop them, we’re all bored of it.”

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What is the latest on City’s charges?

Appearing on Kick Off on Thursday night, talkSPORT’s Ben Jacobs gave an update on the current situation regarding City’s charges.

“I think the difference is that City are fighting this vociferously. In terms of the volume of charges, it’s worth noting Chelsea’s, having agreed a settlement with the Premier League, was also a very large number.

“And that’s because these alleged breaches are over a number of years, so they kind of fall into buckets which means that, if Manchester City’s lawyers are to prove innocence in one category, upwards of 30 charges from the 115, it’s actually more than that now, may drop away.

“As a consequence, this is a really complex legal case. Now, the actual independent hearing finished in December 2024, which is why a lot of people are surprised we don’t have any clarity.

“The short answer why is, after the hearing, there has to be written reasons that can take time. We might be talking about thousands of pages for both parties to go through, and then there’s potential on both sides, the Premier League and Manchester City, for an appeal process.

“And City, as the defendant, have the opportunity to say, ‘Everything must be kept confidential’. And then on top of that, there’s even a possibility that it’s challenged outside of the football domain, or alternatively, the Premier League and Manchester City try like Chelsea did and come to some kind of settlement.

“So, behind the scenes, sources say there’s progress. We thought there might be some clarity in early or mid-2025, and now we’re heading towards the end of the season, and still nothing.

“What I can tell you again is, City deny any form of guilt and if there is to be a punishment, the expectation is that it would not be in place in time to be implemented this season.”

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Jacobs added: “Punishments can range from, in theory, an expulsion, or an asterisk by various silverware won, but that’s not seen as likely or feasible and again, it’s defensible.

“You’ve got fines, you’ve got points deductions, you’ve got transfer bans, so it’s a whole spectrum of punishments and again, City deny any wrongdoing so they are fighting this very fiercely and have done since day one.

“They point to some of the rulings from UEFA which lean towards their argument, whereas the Premier League have brought forward other charges that were not looked at by UEFA, so we can’t entirely compare the UEFA and the Premier League case.

“And then on top of all of that, you have an added complication of the complexity, which is not really comparable to Nottingham Forest, Everton or Leicester.

“What we can say is, in terms of due process, some of those cases were expedited and as a result, clearly there was a desire to put clarity and an end point on those cases so everybody knew where they stood.

“But with Forest and Everton, it was a PSR breach that is probably only equivalent, in terms of volume, pages of documents, arguments to maybe one or two of these Man City charges and you’ve got a balance sheet, and you’ve got a clear threshold of £105million of cumulative loss over three years.

“This is about, ‘Did Roberto Mancini, when he was Man City manager, get a consultancy payment that was on the Al Jazeera books, owned also by the same parent company, but disguised from Man City’s books?’

“These are about breaches over a long period of time where the financial rules have changed dramatically and were not as robust in the early part of when some of these charges were levelled. So, it’s a legal minefield and that, in essence, is why it’s taking so long.”