Bird & Bird, Clifford Chance act in landmark Manchester City case

Bird & Bird and Clifford Chance have acted on the Premier League's landmark case against Manchester City, with an independent commission finding the club guilty of serious breaches of the league's financial rules.

Bird & Bird represented the Premier League, while Clifford Chance acted for Manchester City in proceedings that included a 12-week hearing at London’s International Dispute Resolution Centre in 2024.

The Premier League published the commission's findings on Tuesday. City was found guilty of all charges relating to breaches of financial rules between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons, including the use of “sham” commercial contracts to disguise owner funding and misstate its accounts.

The commission found that the schemes inflated City's revenues and reduced its costs by more than £900 million during the period, making the club appear to comply with financial rules.

According to the decision, Abu Dhabi United Group, the investment company controlled by Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour, funded the bulk of payments that the club recorded as commercial sponsorship revenue.

Manchester City maintains its innocence and said it would appeal, arguing that the decision contains “clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe”.

Legal battle

The commission's published decision identifies Bird & Bird and Clifford Chance as the firms acting for the two sides but redacts the names of counsel despite their roles in the case having been widely reported elsewhere. The Premier League said it was currently permitted to publish only a redacted summary of the commission's core findings.

Lord Pannick KC of Blackstone Chambers has been leading for Manchester City along with Paul Harris KC of Monckton Chambers.

They were instructed by Clifford Chance partners Christopher Yates, James Cranston and Jason Epstein, The Lawyer reported.

For the Premier League, Blackstone Chambers' Adam Lewis KC, Andrew Hunter KC and Jason Pobjoy KC have been acting, instructed by Bird & Bird partner Max Duthie, according to The Lawyer.

The hearing began in September 2024, with the commission acknowledging that producing its decision had taken much longer than anticipated.

What happens next

Manchester City has until 2 October to appeal.

The Premier League has described the case and decision as the most significant in its history. Potential sanctions include severe fines and points deductions.

Simon Leaf of sports law firm Three Points told the Financial Times that the decision left City executives with a “mountain to climb if they are to overturn the decision”.

“This wasn't a technical accounting dispute but a deliberate scheme to disguise owner funding as sponsorship revenue, running for the best part of a decade and going right to the very top of the club,” he told the publication, adding that City should expect a “severe sanction”.