LONDON.- The lawyers of the Premier League and the Manchester City They would have made their final arguments last week before the independent commission in charge of examining the charges facing the English club, the Daily Mail newspaper reported on Monday.
This legal battle began on September 16 at the International Center for Dispute Resolution in London and ended last Friday, according to this newspaper, after weeks of a process carried out with great secrecy.
The three members that make up the independent panel will now review the arguments of both sides before delivering the verdict, which is not expected before several months.
The Premier League, which organizes the most followed soccer championship in the world, estimates that Manchester City consciously broke the financial rules imposed between 2009 and 2018 to inflate its sporting ambitions.
During that interval, the ‘Citizens’ won the championship three times. In addition, they accumulated multiple titles in the following years, both in England and in Europe with the 2023 Champions League.
An unprecedented fact
The number of charges against the club (115 in total) and the pedigree of the accused, the current four-time champion of England, represent unprecedented and spectacular elements for what was baptized by the press as the “sports trial of the century.”
From Emirati-owned Manchester City, the board has not ceased to claim innocence, but the team often receives ridicule and insults from rival fans, convinced that the ‘Citizens’ are guilty of cheating.
If City were found guilty, they could receive a significant points withdrawal as punishment, which in turn could lead the club to relegation to lower categories.
Those led by Pep Guardiola are currently going through a complex situation on the field, but before that they had established themselves as one of the best teams on the planet.
