PL quartet seek ‘hundreds of millions’ of Man City FFP compensation ahead of six-year deadline
Four Premier League clubs have met the six-year deadline to formally register for compensation if Manchester City are found guilty of serious charges among their 115 alleged breaches of Premier League financial rules.
Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham all lodged legal notices ahead of a potential statute of limitations deadline last week, reports The Times.
City’s case is still being heard by an independent regulatory commission and the outcome isn’t expected until early next year.
The commission can order City to pay compensation but because of laws around time limits to register such claims, the four clubs were concerned they may miss out if they wait for the case to be resolved.
The report states:
‘The compensation notices were served after the four clubs were advised by lawyers there was a potential six-year statute of limitations period dating from November 5, 2018, when the German website Der Spiegel first published the Football Leaks documents.
‘Although City’s alleged rule breaches date from 2009, the 1980 Limitation Act’s six-year period for legal claims for breaches of contract in the UK allows an exception where that breach has been concealed. That would allow the six-year period to begin when details of the alleged breaches were made public.
If the charges against City are proven, clubs could claim for loss of income for missing out on the league title, qualification for the Champions League or other European competitions over the course of several seasons, which could total hundreds of millions of pounds.
‘Clubs cannot sue each other through the courts under Premier League rules but they can do so through arbitration under Rule X. Five clubs applied for compensation when Everton were sanctioned for breaching Profitability and Sustainability Rules last season — Leeds United, Leicester City, Nottingham Forest, Burnley and Southampton — but those claims have since been withdrawn or are unresolved.
‘In the City case, lawyers are understood to have advised clubs that if they waited until the outcome of the hearing into the 115 alleged rule breaches then there was a risk any compensation claim could be deemed to be out of time.’
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Chelsea are conspicuous by their absence among the compensation-seeking clubs, but they have their own Premier League investigation looming that could also lead to similar claims from clubs, which may be a factor in them not lodging legal notices against City.
City are charged with not providing accurate financial information for nine separate seasons, with the full details of Roberto Mancini and Yaya Toure’s pay among the points of contention.
They’ve also been charged with failing to co-operate with the investigation and failing to hand over documents over five seasons from 2018-19 to 2022-23.