A football finance expert has revealed their ‘gut feeling’ on Manchester City’s APT case against the Premier League before the FFP case gets underway.
At the start of 2023, it emerged that Man City had been charged after being accused of breaching over 100 of the Premier League’s Financial Fair Play issues.
This revelation came about following a four-year probe into City’s conduct between 2009 and 2018.
This case has already dragged on longer than most would have liked, but the situation is complicated and a resolution is unlikely to be reached before the end of this year.
If found guilty of these charges, Pep Guardiola‘s side could be given a huge fine, points deduction, transfer ban or even be expelled from the Premier League.
Earlier this year, a further spanner was thrown in the works as City launched an unprecedented legal battle against the Premier League as they campaign for the removal of Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules.
If the verdict of this APT case is in Man City’s favour, it would dramatically alter their FFP situation as the majority of their supposed rule breaches would become redundant.
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The City vs Premier League APT was heard last month, but details on the potential verdict are yet to be announced.
However, a report from Football Insider points out that ‘in a new twist, the APT rules have been published unchanged in the top-flight handbook for the 2024-25 campaign on 25 July’.
This is said to see the Premier League ‘drop a new hint’ on the APT case resolution before the FFP case ‘gets underway in the autumn’.
In response, finance expert Keith Wyness – who was previously the CEO at Everton and Aston Villa – has revealed “gut feeling” on Man City’s APT situation.
“Like everyone else, I was keen to see the handbook come out – I used to get it religiously every year,” Wyness said in an interview with Football Insider.
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“I still look at it in detail every year. That may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I still find it interesting.
“But the intriguing thing about the Associated Party Transactions rules is that there has been no change. That is likely to mean that a decision simply hasn’t been reached.
“If the Premier League has won this case, then that could also explain the lack of change in rules.
“There may also be an agreement to keep the decision confidential until the other Man City case is heard later this year.
“There are all sorts of exciting conspiracy theories, but my gut feeling is that a decision just hasn’t quite been reached yet.”