Manchester City will face an extremely serious punishment if they are found to have broken Premier League financial rules.
On Tuesday morning (August 13) several reports claimed that the hearing against Man City on 115 alleged breaches of Premier League financial rules will begin on September 16.
In February 2023 the Premier League charged City with 115 alleged breaches of its financial rules over a nine-year period between 2009 and 2018.
The alleged rule breaches include not providing accurate financial information for nine separate seasons, not providing full details of former manager Roberto Mancini's pay over the four seasons he was at the club from 2009 to 2013, and not providing full details of players' remuneration - including that of the former midfielder Yaya Toure - over six seasons from 2010-11 to 2015-16.
City have also been charged with not co-operating with the Premier League's investigation and not handing over documents when requested over five seasons from 2018-19 to 2022-23.
The Premier League launched an investigation into City in 2018 after the publication of Football Leaks documents by the German website Der Spiegel.
The documents included copies of Mancini's contract, image rights agreements involving Toure's agent, and numerous emails suggesting City's owners paid sponsorship money directly.
City have strenuously denied the allegations.
The severity and complexity of the alleged breaches mean that, if proven, City will likely face relegation from the Premier League.
According to The Times, the outcome of the 10-week hearing is expected early in 2025.
City were handed a two-year ban from European competition by UEFA in 2020 over alleged financial rule breaking.
The ban was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after it ruled that payments of £30million in allegedly disguised owner equity funding via the Etisalat telecoms company could not be dealt with as rule breaches as they were time-barred.
Two of the three CAS panel members ruled that the allegation that City received disguised equity funding via Etihad Airways "remains unsubstantiated."
The Premier League hearing can deal with the time-barred elements of City's alleged breaches that UEFA could not.
The outcome of City's separate legal case brought against the Premier League over associated party transaction rules (APT) will be revealed in the next two weeks.
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