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Who might sue City?

There has been considerable speculation about the consequences of the findings against Manchester City both for the club and football more generally.   The one confident prediction I am prepared to make is that lawyers, and particularly sports lawyers, can look forward to several years' lucrative work.

The Swiss Ramble has undertaken his usual forensic analysis of the financial consequences for City, although until we know what the sanctions are going to be, this is necessarily speculative.   However, he covers a range of scenarios on his Substack page.

He also looks at some of the possibilities for law suits.  As he admits, it is not clear which clubs might actually pursue a claim against City.  Only four clubs have preserved their right to compensation under the Premier League rulebook’s section W, namely Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham,

If these four clubs go ahead, they would be relying on the same rule under which Burnley made a successful claim against Everton.  Using the legal principle of “loss of chance”, Burnley argued that their relegation was the result of the sporting advantage enjoyed by Everton following their PSR breach. They were awarded a total of £35m, made up of £26m compensation plus £9m interest.   (There is, however, an appeal in progress).

That was for a single breach in a single season, so the amounts claimed against City would be significantly higher.  It is far from certain that the clubs that did not lodge their right would also take action, especially as there may be a statute of limitations deadline, but the temptation is obvious, given the size of the prize.

The legal costs will be incredibly high with the Premier League’s share forecast to be as much as £70m. As the winning party, they should be able to recoup a significant amount from City, which will be much appreciated by other clubs in the top flight, as they have had to bear this additional expense.

The chair of the parliamentary body (the Treasury Select Committee, House of Commons) that oversees the work of HMRC has written to the tax authority about the “implications” of the Premier League’s investigation. This followed a report from UK firm Tax Policy Associates that suggested there could be “£12m in unpaid tax”, based on details around Roberto Mancini’s Abu Dhabi consultancy agreement.

My general comment would be that much of the discussion so far underplays the geopolitical or high politics dimension in terms of relations between the UK and the UAE.


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