The Premier League's legal battle with Manchester City threatens to overshadow the 2025 sporting calendar, with lawyers poised to be the biggest winners as financial regulations, competition rules, and player safety remain contentious issues.
We already know who sport's biggest winners will be in 2025 - the lawyers as disputes rage over financial rules, the future of competitions and safety. And a seventh consecutive year begins with the most complex and protracted legal saga in English football history rumbling on - but with the expectation of a verdict in the Premier League versus Manchester City . There is anticipation it could be delivered by February.
Private hearings into alleged misdemeanours to comply with financial regulations were concluded by a commission in early December after spreading over 12 weeks. The club will be hoping their expensively assembled squad of lawyers was more effective than their expensively assembled squad of players over the same period as Pep Guardiola's reigning champions experienced an uncharacteristic fall from grace on the pitch. The verdicts on 130 charges could determine if City even play in the Premier League next season if a points deduction sees them relegated. But we have already seen a taste of what is to come - when even findings set out in a lengthy legal document can be contested, especially if all the charges are not proven. Both sides were left claiming victory at the outcome of a smaller challenge brought by City against the league last year into the rules determining how much clubs can earn from companies linked to their ownership. And it is who owns City that means any hefty punishment could create ripples beyond the pitch with the club controlled by United Arab Emirates (UAE) vice president Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan. Just before Christmas, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was in Abu Dhabi searching for investment into Britain. That required glad-handing Sheikh Mansour and Khaldoon al Mubarak, the chief executive of state-run investment fund Mubadala who is also chairman of City. We already know from internal government correspondence the City case, sparked by leaks published in 2018, is being discussed within the Foreign Offic
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