New Delhi: Manchester City’s day of reckoning is close as the hearing for the 115 alleged breaches of Premier League’s financial regulations is set to begin on Monday. Head coach Pep Guardiola has stated the team will accept whatever sentence is given and added that ‘Everyone is innocent until proven guilty.’
“We will accept the sentence. I know there will be more rumours and more about the [possible] sentences but we will see. I know what people are expecting as it’s what I’ve read for many years. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty,” said Guardiola in a press conference.
The planned independent commission that is scheduled to last ten weeks is set to begin. If the side is found guilty of the worst breaches, the defending Premier League chances face the threat of being relegated.
The alleged rule violations include failing to submit accurate financial data for nine respective seasons, withholding information about former manager Roberto Mancini’s compensation during his four seasons at the team from 2009 to 2013, not cooperating with an investigation and handing over documents as required over five seasons from 2018-19 to 2022-23, and failing to disclose compensation information of former players, including Yaya Toure over the course of six seasons, from 2010 to 2015–16.
With the hearing set to last 10 weeks, that would mean that the ruling will be made in early 2025 in the middle of the upcoming Premier League season further raising cause for concern for the side that has won the last four Premier League titles.
“It starts soon and then finishes soon. An independent panel will decide and I am looking forward to the decision,” said Pep. When asked if he and the players have discussed the case he replied, “I am not a lawyer. Erling (Haaland) is not a lawyer, no. There are many lawyers in this country and in Spain, but I will wait and see.”
City were previously banned by the Union of European Football Association’s (UEFA) for two years of European competition in 2019 for a breach of Financial Fair Play rules after deeming they’d falsely inflated sponsorship revenues between 2012 and 2016. Along with the two-year ban, City were also handed a 30 million euro fine, only for that to be overturned in the Court of Arbitration for Sport. IANS
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