Mohammed Sheikh
|01 October 2026
Where Did the Years Go? Lessons from the Manchester City Case
pinqDR explores where the years went in the Manchester City case, and why an early, reasoned view of the merits need not take years.
Most of the Manchester City case did not happen at a hearing. The hearing took about four months; the case has now run for nearly eight years. The Premier League's investigation began in December 2018. On 25 September 2026, press reports stated that the independent panel had found against the club on the vast majority of the charges (The Guardian, 25 September 2026). The club says the process is ongoing, and no outcome has been published. The merits are for the independent Commission, but the timeline leaves much to be desired. pinqDR considers where the time went, and where an early, reasoned view fits.
Where the time went
The League opened its investigation after media reports of documents obtained from a hack of the club's email servers. It asked for documents, and the club objected. In October 2019 the League began an arbitration to obtain them, and in November 2020 the tribunal ordered the club to provide certain documents and information. By then the club had challenged the tribunal's jurisdiction in the Commercial Court. It lost in March 2021, and in July 2021 the Court of Appeal ruled on whether that judgment should be published. In the same judgment, Males LJ called the slow progress of the investigation "a matter of legitimate public concern".
The case was referred to a Commission on 6 February 2023, on five categories of alleged breach, from financial information to cooperation with the investigation itself (Premier League, 6 February 2023). The hearing ran from September to December 2024.
In total, about 50 months passed before referral, and about 44 between referral and the reported decision.
What does the timeline tell us?
Is speed possible in such a case? Yes. In a different case, Nottingham Forest admitted a breach of the profitability and sustainability rules. It was referred to a Commission on 15 January 2024 and sanctioned nine weeks later, under directions designed to resolve such cases within the season (Premier League, 18 March 2024). Leicester City contested jurisdiction, and its case took longer. It passed from the EFL to the League on 6 June 2024; an arbitration tribunal confirmed the League's jurisdiction in March 2025, and in April 2026 an Appeal Board upheld the Commission's recommendation of a six-point deduction.
In the City case, the longest stretch was the investigation before referral. Before any referral, a regulator has to decide what it holds, what it still needs, which allegations will stand up and whether a preliminary fight is worth having. Those are judgements about the merits, and they are made on documents.
Timing will matter even more in the coming years. The League's new financial rules, which it said would take effect from the 2026/27 season, provide for in-season monitoring and sanctions (Premier League, 21 November 2025). Claims between clubs take time too. In April 2023, Burnley applied to intervene in the League's case against Everton for breaching the profitability and sustainability rules in 2021/22. Burnley says the breach caused its relegation that season. Its compensation claim was heard over ten days in 2025 and decided in 2026.
Where pinqPredict fits
pinqPredict is built for that early view. It reviews the documents as an experienced disputes lawyer would and produces, within minutes, a reasoned early neutral evaluation of a potential, live or concluded dispute, addressing the position of both parties. Three features matter here.
First, one party can use pinqPredict alone, without the agreement or involvement of the other side. A regulator, or a club, can test its own case without asking anyone.
Second, it takes documents as they come: emails in eml or msg format, PDFs, Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, and images, including scanned material and handwriting. It handles large volumes of email with long chains and layered attachments. The scale of the documents in the Manchester City case would not have fazed pinqPredict.
Third, pinqPredict is designed to give a neutral view of the merits as a dispute develops, so it can be run again as new evidence arrives.
This is not about replacing counsel. pinqPredict gives counsel, and their client, a reasoned starting point to set against their own advice.
The direction of travel
The League's Commissions are independent of the League and its clubs, and nothing here touches the Commissions' work. The point is narrower. The parties who bring and defend these cases decide, long before any hearing, what to pursue and how. Those decisions can be better informed, and made sooner.
pinqPredict is an effective way to make that first view faster and better reasoned.
In short, the years did not go at the hearing. Most of them went before it, and neither the investigation nor a first view of the merits need take years.
If the decision is to pursue the case, how could the decision-making process in the Manchester City case have been more efficient, and better for both the club and the League? We address that question in a separate blog.
To find out more about pinqPredict, get in touch at hello@pinqDR.com.
Useful links
Manchester City Football Club Ltd v The Football Association Premier League Ltd [2021] EWCA Civ 1110
https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2021/1110.html
Premier League, Premier League statement (6 February 2023)
https://www.premierleague.com/en/news/3045970
https://www.aol.co.uk/articles/manchester-city-found-guilty-breaking-153549000.html
https://gulfnews.com/sport/football/manchester-city-respond-as-premier-league-case-takes-new-turn-1.500687975
Premier League, Nottingham Forest FC deducted four points by independent Commission (18 March 2024)
https://www.premierleague.com/en/news/3936397
Premier League, Premier League Statement: Leicester City FC (5 February 2026)
https://www.premierleague.com/en/news/4581043/premier-league-statement-leicester-city-05-february-2026
Premier League v Leicester City, Appeal Board decision (6 April 2026)
https://resources.premierleague.pulselive.com/premierleague/document/2026/04/08/210cf7a3-5ceb-4013-ad5f-7bd4a357b602/260407_LCFC-v-PL-Final-Decision.pdf
Premier League, Premier League statement: New financial rules (21 November 2025)
https://www.premierleague.com/en/news/4468470/premier-league-statement-new-financial-system
Burnley v Everton, Premier League Commission decision on compensation (June 2026)
https://resources.premierleague.pulselive.com/premierleague/document/2026/06/10/14b0acd1-3d6a-41e0-a862-fffce1d6c2cc/BURNLEY-v-EVERTON-Compensation-Decision-with-Attachments-Redacted-.pdf
pinqDR, Introducing pinqPredict
https://pinqdr.com/blog/introducing-pinqpredict