Manchester City could be hit by compensation claims from rival clubs worth up to £1billion. A number of Premier League sides have already taken advice about launching legal action over City’s serial cheating. An independent disciplinary commission has found Man City guilty of cooking the books to the tune of almost £1bn. And those seeking damages from City and their owners are likely to aim for individual payouts which reach a similar total if and when they take the club to court. SunSport has crunched the numbers for the Citizens’ nine seasons of shame and focused on the clubs most directly affected by the Manchester giants’ on-field success. That is to say, those who missed out on qualification for the Champions League or European football. And/or on finishing in a league position which would have generated more money in PL merit payments or shares of the following season’s European payouts. By these calculations, Tottenham suffered the most. Spurs finished one league position outside Champions League qualification FOUR times during that period, with City taking one of the PL slots each time. Even if the North Londoners had won one, drawn two and lost three of their group games in each of those “lost” Cl campaigns and never reached the knockout stages, they would have earned almost £91million. Across all the clubs whose European dreams were affected by City, a conservative estimate puts the total losses at nearly £370m. Conservative because PL clubs tended to do better than P6 W1 D2 L3 in group stages and frequently reached the latter stages, earning multi-million bonuses for every round of progress. A more realistic figure would be £500m. And that is just the potential income which would come under the heading “broadcasting” in most club accounts. The other two revenue streams, commercial and matchday, are also boosted significantly by participation in European competition, especially the Champions League. Add in sponsor bonuses for those achievements, and for winning trophies, and you are talking about hundreds of millions more of income which City’s rivals were denied. In the first season of City’s ...
- Tottenham: £91m estimated loss from missed Champions League campaigns
- Total estimated losses across all affected clubs: £370m (conservative) to £500m (realistic)
- Key revenue streams affected: broadcasting, commercial, matchday, sponsor bonuses
- Appeal deadline: October 2
- Appeal conclusion deadline: December 25
- Possible appeal hearing: December 14-18
- Final verdict deadline: January 17
Source: The Sun
