Man City’s main rivals lodge legal notices against Premier League champions

Some of Manchester City’s biggest rivals have lodged legal notices reserving their right to seek compensation following football’s ‘trial of the century’ into more than 100 alleged rule breaches.

In the latest phase of the Premier League civil war, Liverpool, Arsenal and, it is understood, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur have all taken formal legal steps to protect their chance of major damages if Manchester City are found guilty of serious wrongdoing.

As revealed last month by Telegraph Sport, a group of clubs believe they had no choice but to take action because of fears that the length of the Premier League investigation and now ongoing independent commission could leave any future claims time-barred.

Breach of contract claims generally have a six-year limitation and, with allegations of Manchester City rule-breaking emerging in Der Spiegel in November 2018, clubs have now moved to reserve their rights within that time frame.

Any eventual arbitration between Premier League clubs would follow the outcome of the current commission, which can itself issue a compensation order as part of potential powers which include fines, points deductions, and even expulsion from the league.

“Clubs who have been competing with City for major trophies and European qualification would potentially have most at stake, but it all ultimately depends on what the commission finds and the result of any appeal, so this could go on for many months yet,” said a Premier League source.

City, who have won eight Premier League titles since 2011, say they have “irrefutable evidence” to support their innocence and that they “look forward to this matter being put to rest once and for all”.

Reservation of rights letter buys clubs time

A reservation of rights letter is typically served where a party has become aware of facts which may amount to breach of contract, but needs time to investigate and consider its options, and wishes in the meantime to reserve its rights.

The 1980 Limitation Act sets out a six-year period from being aware of any potential breach with reasonable diligence. It is a point in time that could be open to interpretation given City’s consistent denials, but allegations first surfaced via Der Spiegel’s reports of the Football Leaks documents on Nov 5, 2018.

The alleged breaches of more than 100 Premier League rules can be split into five groups. The biggest relates to the seasons from 2009-10 until 2017-18 and the requirement that clubs provide accurate financial information and act in the utmost good faith.

The next set of alleged breaches concerns the full disclosure of manager payments from 2009-10 until 2012-13 and player payments, including image rights, between 2010-11 and 2015-16.

City are also charged with breaching Uefa regulations from 2013-14 until 2017-18 and Premier League profitability and sustainability rules from 2015-16 until 2017-18, as well as rules that require members to cooperate in the utmost good faith with investigations by providing information and documents.

The commission hearing began in St Paul’s in September and is expected to last around 10 weeks. A verdict is not then expected until next year. City, Liverpool, Tottenham, Arsenal and United, as well as the Premier League, have declined to comment on the legal notices.

Parties divided over APT rules judgment

It follows a separate arbitration tribunal that heard City’s challenge over the associated party transaction (APT) rules in June, and for which findings were published by the two sides last month.

The APT rules seek to ensure that commercial deals between clubs and entities linked to their ownership are done at fair market value, to avoid such deals being artificially inflated to boost revenue.

Manchester City believe that the APT rules are all void because the judgment found certain aspects of them to be in breach of competition law.

The Premier League believes that only those aspects found in breach need revising and a set of proposed amendments will come before all 20 member clubs at another crunch meeting next week.