Manchester City’s appeal against their guilty verdict for breaking Premier League financial rules could be heard as soon as mid-January, according to Independent Football Regulator (IFR) chair David Kogan.
Speaking to Times Radio on Wednesday, Kogan stressed that the case is in the hands of an independent commission, not the league, and that the panel works to a fixed timetable.
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“My understanding is that there is a prescribed process, which is 12 weeks, and so people are assuming this will actually be heard by the middle or the end of January,” he said.
“What I don’t think we can do is take any judgment until we’re quite clear.”
City were found guilty of 114 breaches between 2009 and 2018 and have always denied wrongdoing. No sanction has been decided, but the options range from a fine to a points deduction severe enough to relegate them, and there has been talk of the club losing the three league titles they won during that period.
Enzo Maresca’s side remain unaffected on the pitch, with Sunday’s 3-0 win at Anfield making it six league wins from six. Maresca said beforehand that he expected the appeal to succeed. “I completely trust the club in this moment, in the future, always,” he said.
The case has also spilled into politics. Prime Minister Andy Burnham, the former Greater Manchester mayor, was criticised for saying he would be “really concerned” if the club’s owners in Abu Dhabi sold up, and Downing Street later insisted nobody was “above the rules”. Burnham has since made public his dealings with City.
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Kogan, who said on Tuesday that he would resign over any political meddling, insisted the regulator had been left alone.
“We cannot, when regulating football, be subject to political interference on decisions we make about owners, directors or anything else,” he said.
– AFP
Photo: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images
