A former Manchester City financial advisor has rebutted the claim that the Premier League club bill has exceeded £200 million in 115 claims lawsuits.
The Premier League hit Man City with 115 claims in February 2023 that have allegedly violated Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules for nine years between 2009 and 2018.
The actual number of bills reportedly is 130, with the city being threatened by various punishments, including point deductions, title stripping or expelling from top flights.
According to the Premier League, Man City has broken the rules for nine seasons by allegedly failing to provide accurate financial information. They also argue that the city has not complied with UEFA FFP rules for five years.
Details: utd utd utd utd utd urp Chelsea at the top of the 5-year Premier League net spending table!
A report from Times financial expert Martin Ziegler claimed that the costs under investigation exceeded £200 million for the club and league.
The top lawyer is said to have charged “thousands of pounds per hour,” and the unnamed club chief told the newspaper:
That “eye-away” figure is said to be “completely ridiculous” by Stephen Bourson, a former financial adviser to the Manchester Giants.
Bourson believes the bill is close to £220 million “on both sides,” but he still thinks it’s a “slight” amount.
“Well, that’s not £200 million,” the financial expert told Football Insider.
“It’s totally ridiculous, but that’s important, and there’s a big question mark about overall legal spending in the Premier League.
“I have done a piece that analyzes the past few years of their operating expenses, including legal costs, and they are very important.
“I think it’s true that they’ve grown aggressively over the last few years, so there have been a lot of legal spending for a few years. I’ve been pretty humble before Covid and I’ve been hooked on the period that followed.
“But again, the organization is growing. They’re doing more in the house. Besides that, they have all these cases.
“There’s no way a city incident is £200 million, but it’s obviously very important. I think the total cost would be something like £220-25 million for each. I don’t think there’s a big contradiction.
“What I’ve seen before is that the Premier League has spent a lot of money on the club, so their fees were much higher than the club.
“They have been struggling to collect these fees from Everton and Nottingham Forest despite obviously winning the case.
“What happened is that when they go to an independent committee trying to get their expenses back, the independent committee says you’re spending too much, you’re making these cases too complicated. And you don’t necessarily need to use cheap lawyers, but we’re not asking Everton and Nottingham Forest to pay for your very expensive lawyers.”
Read more: 10 great players are “too old” for age-oriented Premier League transfers
