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Governing body will wait until appeal process has concluded before deciding whether to take action
The English Football Association has confirmed it has powers to take disciplinary action against Manchester City and key individuals at the club, in the governing body’s first comment since City were found guilty of multiple breaches of financial regulations.
The FA said the independent commission’s decision on City had “significant implications for the integrity of the game” and that it “will take action where appropriate”. It was confirmed on Friday that City had appealed against the verdict of the commission, which after a 42-day hearing concluded the club had used a “Disguised Funding Scheme” and “sham contracts” to boost their income by more than £900 million between 2009 and 2018.
The FA will wait until the appeal process has concluded – which, based on the Premier League ’s rule book, should be by the end of January – before deciding whether to take action. It said it was monitoring the case closely. The Premier League said City had lodged an appeal with the chair of the independent judicial panel established by the league and that the hearing would “remain private and confidential until publication of the outcome is permitted”.
In announcing their appeal, City repeated their assessment that the commission’s verdict “contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe”. They said again they were “innocent of the accusations” and that “a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions”. The FA has powers to take action against individuals proved to have broken rules and/or acted dishonestly, which the commission concluded had been the case.
The names of those involved were redacted in the 40-page core judgment published this week but the FA could ask the Premier League for an unredacted version.
“The Independent Commission’s decision has significant implications for the integrity of the game,” the FA statement read. “We are carefully considering the decision and its implications and will take action where appropriate. “As proceedings between the Premier League and Manchester City Football Club remain ongoing, we do not intend to comment further at this stage. We will, however, continue to monitor developments closely.
” The FA’s standard practice is to wait for disciplinary proceedings conducted by leagues, such as the Premier League or EFL, to run their course before taking action. In July, the FA fined Chelsea £10 million and imposed a suspended two-window transfer ban after the club admitted 74 breaches of its agent regulations, four months after the Premier League fined them £10.75 million for the same offences, which related to unlawful payments to players and agents.
The FA has additional powers to take action against individuals, although it did not do so in the Chelsea case because those involved are no longer working in football. The FA charged Southampton’s manager, Tonda Eckert, with misconduct for his role in the so-called Spygate saga involving Middlesbrough in May, with a disciplinary hearing taking place last month that could result in the German being given a lengthy ban from football.
Meanwhile, UK prime minister Andy Burnham is facing calls from the Liberal Democrats to publish details of all his meetings with Manchester City’s owners, the Abu Dhabi United Group , and declare all hospitality he has accepted at the Etihad Stadium. Burnham was widely criticised this week for saying he would be “really concerned” if ADUG were forced to sell City after being found guilty of breaching the Premier League’s financial regulations, which led to Downing Street issuing two clarifications of his position on Thursday.
The prime minister also praised ADUG’s investment in Manchester, having had close relations with the company – through which Sheikh Mansour bought City in 2008 – during nine years as the mayor of Greater Manchester, which ended when he returned to parliament this summer. In a strongly-worded letter to Burnham, the Lib Dems’ spokesperson for culture, media and sport, Anna Sabine, criticised his apparent defence of City as “extraordinary” and invoked Gianni Infantino’s aborted World Cup sell-off scheme in what she described as a difficult year for football.
“As you will know, an independent commission has found Manchester City guilty of 114 charges of breaching financial rules over a timeframe of nearly a decade, including the use of ‘sham contracts’ and schemes to disguise more than £830m of funding,” Sabine writes. “Despite this, your response was to thank the club’s owners for their work and describe the findings as ‘contested’ and that it was ‘wrong to jump to a conclusion’.
It is extraordinary that a prime minister would use his position to call into question the findings of the independent investigation, and risk undermining trust in the Premier League’s processes.
“This has been a difficult year for football’s reputation. Fifa’s conduct around the World Cup has already raised serious questions about integrity in the game we love. At a moment like this, fans expect their prime minister to stand up for the rules in place, not to appear to side with a club found guilty of breaking them.
” Sabine told the Guardian that Burnham’s ties to ADUG should be scrutinised and is planning to write to Downing Street and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to demand details of their meetings.
“Football fans up and down the country deserve to know that the rules apply to everyone, however rich and powerful they are,” Sabine said. “When the prime minister leaps to the defence of a club’s owners within hours of a verdict, people are entitled to ask what their relationship is. ” – Guardian
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