London (AFP) – Premier League chief executive Richard Masters admits the legal cases facing Manchester City and other top-flight teams have created “uncertainty and frustration” ahead of the new season. An independent commission is set to rule on the 115 charges against Premier League champions City for alleged financial breaches during the season. There are also cases to be resolved involving Leicester and Everton, related to alleged breaches of the league’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).
Asked if the unresolved financial issues would cast a shadow over the 2024/25 season, Masters told Sky Sports: “It does matter, and I understand it creates uncertainty and some frustration but there is no happy alternative to enforcing the rules, which everyone has agreed at the beginning of each season. They have looked each other in the eye and shaken each other’s hand and said ‘we will abide by these rules’. So the Premier League has to enforce rules.”
“Whatever difficulty or frustration that creates is part of maintaining and protecting the Premier League’s competition, its core values, competitive competition. And that’s really my role, and that’s what I want to continue doing.” City, who are bidding for an unprecedented fifth successive Premier League title, have won the top-flight crown twice since the charges, which they vehemently deny, were laid in February last year. Reports have suggested the hearing into City’s case could start in September, but Masters refused to be drawn on a timescale.
“I think it does need to be resolved,” he said. “It’s not in our hands. It’s in the hands of an independent panel. They are in charge of the timing and the running of the process, and we must let them get on with it.”
City’s alleged breaches relate to rules requiring the reporting of accurate financial information and the submission of details of manager and player pay information within the relevant contracts. They also refer to a club’s responsibility as a Premier League member to adhere to UEFA’s financial regulations and to the league’s own profitability and sustainability regulations. City are alleged to have breached rules requiring them to co-operate and assist with the Premier League’s investigation into those breaches, which the league said began in December 2018.
Everton and Nottingham Forest were docked points for PSR breaches last season, and those rules remain in force for the campaign ahead, requiring clubs to limit losses to a maximum of £105 million ($134 million) over three seasons. “I can’t speculate on (whether there will be charges related to the 2023-24 PSR assessment period),” Masters said. “You can only really adjudicate on it when you have audited accounts and that process doesn’t start until towards the end of the year.”
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