Manchester City have spent millions in recent transfer windows amid the wait for a possible points deduction from their ongoing legal battle with the Premier League
Manchester City’s transfer spending should come as no surprise despite them waiting for the verdict of their 115 alleged breaches, according to football finance expert Kieran Maguire.
City were charged with breaching regulations over nine years, from 2009 to 2018. The hearing concluded over a year ago, and a verdict has yet to be issued.
The club released its annual report in December and confirmed that there had been no resolution as of the date of publication. This week marks four years since the charges were first presented, and there is no clear timeline for an outcome.
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In the summer, City spent big to bring in Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Rayan Cherki, Gianluigi Donnarumma, and James Trafford. January saw them spend over £50million to sign Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi.
Much has been made about City’s spending and how it makes a mockery of the Premier League, with them allegedly spending significant sums of money despite being accused of breaching financial rules. However, Maguire has claimed that, from conversations he’s had with people at the club, it’s business as usual.
“If Man City are innocent of the charges and I’ve spoken to one or two people at the club, they say, ‘if we’ve done nothing wrong, why can’t we conduct our business in similar lines to that of the other clubs’,” he told The Manchester Evening News.
“Chelsea have 70-odd charges against them from the football association and they are buying players. Leicester City have had charges against them from the Premier League and those charges are probably eight or nine months outstanding now.
“What we are seeing now is the wheels of football justice are turning very slowly and the basic law is innocent until proven otherwise and City should be allowed to buy players.
“If they are found guilty, the punishment’s going to be very severe, and I think you’d find an awful lot of those players would be on the sale side of City.”