Man City FFP: ‘Emphatic’ APT appeal ‘verdict’ predicted with Citizens tipped to be ‘found guilty’

A football finance expert has provided insight regarding Manchester City’s APT hearing after they launched legal action against the Premier League.

Man City are facing 115 charges for alleged breaches of the Premier League’s Financial Fair Play rules.

The English champions were referred to an independent commission after the Premier League’s four-year probe into their conduct between 2009 and 2018.

This is a complicated case and it remains to be seen how Man City will be punished or if they are sanctioned at all. If found guilty, they could be given a huge fine, points deduction, transfer ban or could be expelled from the Premier League.

This process began at the start of 2023, so it has already dragged on for too long. But another spanner was thrown into the works earlier this year as Man City launched an unprecedented legal battle against the Premier League as they campaign for the removal of Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules.

This case has already been heard and it’s been reported that Man City ‘achieved some success’ in their APT hearing .

READ: Man City stars reassigned after FFP ‘expulsion’: Foden to Chelsea as CB gets ‘dream’ Liverpool move

The official verdict is unlikely to be made public before Man City’s FFP hearing concludes. This case is scheduled to get underway next month but subsequent appeals mean they are likely to avoid punishment this season if they are found guilty.

A new ’emphatic verdict’ provided by former Man City financial advisor Stefan Borson for Football Insider claims all parties are ‘unlikely to challenge’ the decision on their APT case.

Borson explained: “The Premier League rules only allow a challenge of an arbitration decision of this sort in extremely limited grounds.

“That would essentially be one of bad faith or something really quite seriously wrong with the process as well.

“It’s extremely unlikely the Premier League or City would be able to challenge any decision on that basis.

“Interestingly, the arbitration rules are very clear that you can’t challenge the decision based on how the arbitration panel has applied the law, which is the usual way in which people would challenge the arbitration up to a higher court.

“I think it’s very unlikely that there will be an appeal on the arbitration from either party. I think it will be one go only on that one.”

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Earlier this month, beIN Sports pundit Andy Gray predicted Man City will be “found guilty” and will receive a “massive points deduction”.

Gray said: “What will happen? I imagine, and I don’t know, I imagine it’ll be along the lines of a points deduction, a massive one.”

“They will be found guilty. There’s 115 charges and they’re not going to be innocent of all of them.

“I think we both know that. Well, without the independent tribunal, they wouldn’t be charging them if there wasn’t some evidence surrounding them there that suggested they might be guilty.

“I don’t think they’ll take titles away from them, so what can they do? They can take points away from them now, they can fine them.

“Fining them? Who cares. They can fine them as much as they want, it doesn’t matter to Manchester City, they can pay that out of their back pocket. The only thing I can see is a massive points deduction and a massive fine.”