Leicester’s case gives hope to Manchester City

The three “judicial” victories of Leicester City, Everton and Chelsea about Premier League in just 48 hours they increase the optimism of City of Manchester in the case of 115 financial irregularities that will begin to be disclosed this month.

This week, Leicester City won its appeal against the Premier League over accusations of breaching financial fair play rules, which allowed losses of £105 million over three years, by saying in one of those three years, the last More specifically, they were in the Championship (English Second Division), a competition not managed by the Premier, but by the English Football League, and therefore cannot be judged by the rule of fairness financial play.

In this way, the ‘Foxes’ avoided a penalty that could have been points, as happened to Nottingham Forest, who were deducted four points, and to Everton, who lost by ten, although the penalty was reduced to six.

However, the ‘Toffees’, as revealed by the British newspaper “The Times”, won the case by paying the cost of the trials in which they were involved last season. The Premier wanted Everton to cover all the costs, around 4.9 million pounds, but the appeal panel decided they only had to pay 1.7 million.

To these two victories for English clubs, we must add Chelsea, which is being investigated for the sale of two hotels to a company owned by the owner of the team, Todd Boehly, to settle accounts. However, an independent commission determined that the 76 million pounds earned by Chelsea from the sale of these hotels was within the “fair market” and therefore the club should not receive a penalty.

A type of operation prohibited by UEFA

The Stamford Bridge team made these sales to reduce their losses in the 2022-2023 season from 166 million pounds to 89 million, but since they were made to BlueCo, a company owned by Todd Boehly, it had to be reviewed of the Premier League to determine that their prices are not inflated.

This type of operation, for example, is prohibited by UEFA, so Chelsea, if it is determined that the set amount does not fall within the fair market, could face sanctions in European competitions.

These three situations have left the Premier League with the intention of reconfiguring the rules of financial fair play to prevent clubs, such as Leicester and Chelsea, from taking advantage of gray areas in the regulations.

Especially since it is happening in the context of the biggest investigation in history, weighing on Manchester City with 115 accusations from 2009 to 2018 and which, if proven true, could condemn the club that won the last four Premier Leagues.

Any change to financial ‘fair play’ must be approved by at least fourteen of the twenty clubs in the league and is something the Premier has been mulling over since last season, as the figure of 105 million in for three years is out of date and has not been updated since 2013, when this rule was implemented, without taking into account the inflation of more than 30% that has hit the United Kingdom since then.

This month the two disputes will begin to be studied

This month, two disputes involving the City will begin to be reviewed; the case of 115 irregularities, which will last ten weeks and a verdict is expected at the beginning of 2025, and the one maintained by the City against Premier in which it tries to overthrow the regulations to carry out operations with sister companies .

Almost a third of City’s sponsors come from the United Arab Emirates, the country that controls the club, so the Premier, as is the case with other clubs such as Chelsea and Newcastle, wants to verify that these operations is carried out in a timely manner. . “fair market.” An expert source on sports legality assured ‘The Times’ that the Leicester case “gives City hope” that an independent commission will “look at the Premier League’s rules with a forensic eye”. instead of doing “what’s convenient.”