Premier League chief calls for patience as Man City legal case drags on

LONDON (AP) — The Premier League’s top official called for patience Wednesday while the seismic legal case involving Manchester City drags on into another season.

City was charged by the league in February 2023 with more than 100 financial breaches, including providing misleading information about its sources of income. The case was heard by an independent commission between September and December last year but no verdict has been reached.

Punishment could be as extreme as expulsion from the top flight. City has always denied the charges.

The issue hangs over the start of another Premier League campaign, with the 2025-26 season starting Friday. But Richard Masters, the competition’s chief executive, reiterated the league has no control or say over the timings.

Asked in an interview with British broadcaster Sky Sports News why the league could not hurry the process along, Masters said: “I can’t answer that specific question. All I can tell you about is the system and how it works.

“I mean, it’s an independent judiciary, essentially. So once the allegations, the charge, has been put forward, they go before an independent panel, which is independently selected, and they are then in charge of the process and its timings. They hear the case, they decide the outcome, and we have no influence over that, over it or its timing. That’s right from an independence point of view.”

Masters said “my frustration is irrelevant.”

“I just have to wait,” he said, “and legal processes rarely take less time than you anticipated, but we have to be patient.”

Taking the Premier League abroad

The Spanish league has recently approved a request for a match, between Villarreal and Barcelona, to be played in the United States in December and Masters was asked whether the Premier League had any similar desire to take a game abroad.

Masters said the need has lessened.

“We did look at the ‘39th game’ way back when, with lots of controversy. I recall that very clearly,” Masters said of a controversial proposal made back in 2008 of having an extra round of matches played overseas. “Our objective at the time, when thinking about it, was to help grow the Premier League around the world.

“And we’ve been able to do that through different means, through brilliant broadcast partnerships, through digital technology, investing in other areas, like the Summer Series tournament we’ve just had in the U.S., and now the Premier League is a genuinely global league. There are billions of people who will be tuning in over the course of the next next nine months to watch Premier League action. So we’ve achieved that objective by different means, that necessity has dissipated.”

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