Man City 115 charges: Stefan Borson drops new update amid ‘executive’s’ reveal
Manchester City will learn the outcome of their 115 charges case at the absolute earliest in either February or March next year.
That is the view of former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider the decision could come considerably later than March due to the complexity of the case.
Man City were dealt the charges by the Premier League in February 2023 for allegedly breaching the financial fair play (FFP) rules over a nine-year period between 2009 and 2018.
An independent commission hearing into the 115 charges started in September and finished earlier this month, with the panel now considering the evidence before it publishes its decision.
Pep Guardiola revealed in a press conference on 21 December the verdict is expected to be delivered in February or March.
Man City verdict likely to be delivered after March
But Borson admitted that timeline is likely to be an estimate from Man City’s lawyers.
“I think it’s the earliest window,” Borson told Football Insider.
“It sounds like it’s quite imprecise, which suggests that they don’t have a very clear agreed timetable. That’s interesting in itself because that would potentially mean that there hasn’t been a deadline given to the panel to bring a decision.
“If that was the case, then this could easily just be the lawyers effectively guessing and that being communicated down to Pep.
“But I think the quicker the decision, the better it will be for City because, if the panel is going to go very negative on City and make very strong findings of wrongdoing, it’s going to need a long time to make sure the way that’s written up is appropriate for such a strong finding against them.
“If it was to come as early as February, that would be a good sign for City. But I’m still slightly sceptical about short timetables, and I do think February is a short timetable. I think March is a short timetable for something of this nature.
“It would take a long time in a High Court version of this. It’s different because people have different day jobs here versus what they would have as a High Court judge.
“But in some ways, that could work the other way because some of these KCs on the panel may well be booked in to do their main work in January, so they may well be busy on other things.
“I think February or March is absolutely the earliest it can be expected, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it would be considerably later than that.
“Somebody at the executive level has clearly said to Pep we can expect it in February or March, but it’s all a bit vague.”
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