Manchester City faces decisive deadline to appeal Premier League breaches ruling

Follow-up – Al-Wasat Iraqi newspaper

Manchester City faces a decisive deadline that expires tomorrow, Friday, to submit its appeal against a ruling that found it guilty of systematically breaching Premier League financial rules over nearly a decade.

Although no sporting sanction has been imposed on the club so far, and the club denies any wrongdoing, Manchester City continue their campaign as league leaders after five consecutive wins, and are preparing to face Liverpool on October 11.

The sporting world is awaiting the club’s decision on whether to appeal the Independent Commission’s findings, since lodging an appeal would extend the duration of the case and postpone the resolution of any possible sanctions by several more months.

Under Premier League rules, an appeal hearing must be held within 12 weeks of its submission, with a decision issued within 30 days of the end of the hearing. The league has not clarified whether there is flexibility in these timeframes given the scale of the case, as the index of the Independent Commission’s document bundle alone reached 750 pages.

Meanwhile, rival clubs are considering the possibility of bringing claims for compensation for potential losses related to prize money, Champions League revenues and other commercial opportunities, after a Premier League statement indicated City used "sham" commercial contracts in schemes that aimed to inflate revenues and reduce costs by more than £900 million, equivalent to about $1.2 billion.