Manchester City might yet avoid punishment from the Premier League for breaches of Financial Fair Play (FFP) in what a football finance expert calls a "ludicrous situation".
Uefa and the Premier League began investigating the club after hacked emails published by Der Spiegel claimed the Blues had subverted FFP rules.
The investigation by Uefa ultimately culminated in an £8.8million fine and a two-year European ban being overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), while the Premier League's inquiry continued privately until recently.
The league's probe, which has dragged on for two and a half years, could result in a fine and/or points deduction for City, although Kieran Maguire, a lecturer in Accounting and Finance at the University of Liverpool, suggests there is a possibility that the Premier League champions avoid any penalties on a technicality.
“If it turns out they could be subject to fines, if they exceed the Financial Fair Play limit, they could be subject to a points deduction," Maguire said on the latest episode of The Price of Football podcast.
“But the crazy thing is that, under the Premier League rules, you’re allowed to lose £105million over the three-year assessment period compared to €30million [under Uefa's rules].
“So we could end up in a ludicrous situation where the Premier League arbitration panel concludes that Manchester City have been in breach of the rules, they then recalculate the numbers, and it works out that City’s losses are £90m over three years. Therefore they’re under the statute in terms for which other punishment applies and they just get a finger-wagging.”
CAS found many of the charges made against City by Uefa were invalid because they were time-barred under the sporting body's own statutes, which state that any alleged breaches said to have taken place more than five years prior to charges being made cannot be scrutinised.
The published Premier League rules on financial fair play do not explicitly have a time bar. However, they do state that the rules are subject to UK law - and the Limitation Act states that any action for breach of contract has a time bar of six years.
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