MANCHESTER — Manchester City's punishment for breaching Premier League financial rules should be handed down before the end of this season, senior football figures have told BBC Sport. The Premier League said on Tuesday that City had been found guilty of all charges relating to breaches between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons, including artificially inflating revenue by more than £900m through "sham" sponsorship deals, a period in which the club won eight trophies.
City have repeatedly denied guilt and signalled an intent to lodge an appeal by the end of this week, three years after they were charged. One club official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "It benefits everyone for this to be resolved as quickly as possible." When asked if they believed it would be, they said: "Instinctively yes, but it has to be done right. We can all see what the risks are if it's not. But those risks have been there throughout the process, as they've won the league multiple times during it." Another source said the process "should" be resolved by the end of the season and hoped any appeal would be "compressed".
The final decision rests in the hands of the independent commission, with both the Premier League board and City able to suggest a suitable punishment before the panel makes its decision. One section of the Premier League regulations says an appeal should conclude no more than 12 weeks after it is filed, and a decision should be made within 30 days of its end, with procedures able to be hurried to meet deadlines like the end of a league season. The Premier League's statement formally announcing the guilty verdicts on Monday said it wants the process to be "concluded as soon as possible".
There is increasingly a desire to have the case resolved by the end of the season amid fears that allowing City to get to the end of the campaign without punishment could lead to uncertainty and farce, particularly if they were to win the title. That urgency contrasts with comments from chief executive Ferran Soriano, who has suggested the case will run for a long time.
Manchester City cannot make a further appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but could potentially claim the process was not impartial at the High Court. The calls for a swift conclusion follow the Premier League confirming Manchester City guilty of all financial breaches between 2009 and 2018, a verdict that has intensified scrutiny on how and when a sanction will be applied.