"KNOW THEIR PUNISHMENT!" Kieran Maguire EXPLAINS LATEST on Manchester City's GUILTY VERDICT!

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Kieran Maguire on Manchester City's legal battle: why the punishment is delayed and how long the case could drag on

On talkSPORT, football finance expert Kieran Maguire discussed Manchester City's Premier League case. He said City remain confident and ready to fight, criticised the secrecy around the punishment, explained why Chelsea is not a valid comparison, and warned of the legal fallout if the league tried to impose a deadline or expel City.

Kieran Maguire joins Paul Hawksbee and Andy Jacobs to discuss Manchester City and the Premier League. Subscribe: https://youtube.com/c/talkSPORT?subconfirmation=1 🏆 Ready to win? Check out the latest prizes at talkSPORTwin.com Enjoyed this YouTube video? 😍 🖥️ talkSPORT's Website: https://talksport.com/ 📲 talkSPORT's X/Twitter: https://x.com/talkSPORT 📷 talkSPORT's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talksport/?hl=en 👤 talkSPORT's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/talkSPORT/ 📱 talkSPORT's Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talksport ? 🔴 Download the talkSPORT app HERE! - https://talksport.com/apps/ 🔎 Want to see if you feature on our YouTube channel? Check out our Best talkSPORT callers playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFVMnSsi04LGLa9pS9xDvme-Gjmlu2 mcfc talkSPORT PremierLeague

Transcript

Well, as we've been telling you, Manchester City have made uh a big signing. We discovered this from the Lawyer magazine's Christian Smith, who was tweeting earlier on. >> The listeners are going, "Come on, tell us who it is." >> He won't be holding up the shirt. Um he is uh Mark Howard Casey. He's advising Manchester City in their Premier League legal battle says uh Christian. Um he's worked with lots of people in the past including Roman Abramovic and John uh amongst others. um seen as one of the bar's top commercial and fraud barristers, they say. Uh Christian also says many with many warning the Premier League season could become a farce after City's win. It's worth pointing out that this was inevitable. It was always going to be a chunky delay between a verdict and the final outcome. Frustration as it is, this is due process. The Premier League will try to get this done quickly, adds asked the judges to move things along, but it's mostly out of their hands. The judges will decide >> taking in all the relevant factors into account how quickly the case proceeds. It is far from ideal but has to be this way. And we were thinking >> the longer it takes though the more damage it is done. >> Does it have to be this way? Kieran Maguire, football finance expert, one half the excellent prices football podcast with her old mate Kevin Day joins us now. Hi Kieran. >> Hi guys. So big signing for uh for City. Another big hitting lawyer joining their team which again suggests this is not going to be a quick process. Yes, certainly the noises that are coming from Manchester is that they are still calm and confident is is the words that I've heard and I think the the warnings that we had a few years ago that if it takes the best lawyers in the world as much time as it takes then that's a route that Manchester City are prepared to go down. they still maintain their innocence despite the very damning content that we've seen in the in the redacted report to date and uh they're going to fight this all the way and if it doesn't work out through the commission and the appeals to the commission. I think there's a very real fear that they might might try to might try to go through the high court route even though the chances there are remote. Uh we we've all seen 35 yarders go in uh not expecting to see that in on on the field of play. So I think the same views held at uh at the Yetiad about their legal position. >> You've seen one I was going to say you've seen one going from Lewis Dunk. So you'll believe anything's possible, won't you? [laughter] >> Sorry. >> That silenced us that did. We were all I was at Coventry and we just looked to each other said was was that was that Lewis kicking [laughter] that >> but all that you know say it does go to the high court that's just for the initial verdict is never mind the say they lost in the high court then there'd be a a suspension handed down or a disciplinary action handed down and then they'd appeal that wouldn't they I mean you you wonder when this will ever end and how damaging it is. This is one of the things we want to understand from you. We still quite can't understand why they have not issued the punishment the punishments and city are appealing against the punishments when they know what they're facing as opposed to just the guilty charges. >> Well, for all we know is that city could have received the punishment and everybody signed a non-disclosure agreement and and they're and they're appealing the the original verdict of guilt at at the same time as knowing what the punishment could be. So there's there's so much silence. You know, we did see the revelations a couple of weeks ago that four clubs had been told in advance of the other clubs in the Premier League, the verdict. So, the degree of secrecy that's taking place here could it could and very well be significant. Chelsea were uh given a potential suspended points deduction for for their financial issues and they appealed that and they were successful and we didn't know anything about that. So I I don't think it does the industry uh any good whatsoever to have so much secrecy. Um transparency is good in all aspects of life and we're not getting this from the football authorities. I don't think it reflects well on the club or the Premier League if this approach is the one that's being undertaken. You you mentioned Chelsea there and and of course people are comparing the two clubs and it seems like City will try and use the if you can call it leniency that the league >> I think you can call it len apply [laughter] I won't but you will and so will you uh the leniency that the league applied to Chelsea they're going to use this aren't they surely >> I think the two things are completely independent uh the Chelsea case involved unauthorized payments uh to agents. This is uh this appears to be uh a a a structured approach of making sure that uh that money which was coming from the owner was being disguised. And I think the the ferocity of the language that we saw from the Premier League itself with constant references to Sham payments and also the the very strong accusations made in the parts of the report that we have seen uh in terms of false and misleading comments and uh effectively untruths being sold uh being being told by the Manchester City witnesses. that that's as strong if not stronger than anything I've ever seen in in reading uh these types of reports over over far too many years. >> Just one final point, Kieran. Um Miguel Delane in the independent yesterday had said that football football executives, Premier League executives have been chatting amongst themselves. understand and somebody's floated the idea that you know as a essentially as a private members club they would all gang up and if they get the 15 votes they could turn around and say well you're expelled until this is all sorted out we expunge the results for the rest for the the ones that have been played this season uh and we deal with this because it's become a fast he said that's very unlikely to happen because of the due process and the legal situation but the Premier League is essentially a private members club and if enough of them felt enough was enough. Why couldn't they say why couldn't they set a time limit on this? Why couldn't they say, "Okay, we get the we get the uh we get the appeal and within a month this has to be decided because it's it's causing untold problems for the brand, if you want to call it that." >> Well, I think if they did try to go down that route, the response from Manchester City's lawyers would be very, very scary. Um, and also there would be issues in the sense that that the likes of of Sky, TNT, and Talk Sport, you've got a contract with the Premier League, the 380 uh league games this season. That contract would have been breached. Where does it leave Manchester City in terms of the Caribel Cup? You know, they they've got a match coming up in a couple of weeks, ironically, against Brighton. Where does it leave them in terms of the Champions League? Um I think they they would be on the end from what we've seen to date from Manchester City with the with the AP contracts and similar they would be on the back they'll be in the receipt of some very strongly worded legal threats uh with the potential that first of all Manchester City would uh would attempt to have this struck off uh and suspended until the result and if not then they would be seeking legal redress especially if if the if the verdict and and the tariff isn't as as high as many people anticipate it will be. >> Um >> yeah, [clears throat] it's not going to happen. >> In almost in a word, um your gut feeling knowing the football finance market, do you expect it to be resolved by the end of this season? If not, when will you expect it to be resolved >> in the football world? Yes. In the legal world world, no. >> Wow. Okay. Well, that's not too hard. >> That's going to be great at the end of the season with City get the trophy, isn't it? That's really going to be great for the Premier League. It's a disaster, isn't it? >> Brighton are going to win it. Don't worry. We'll come We'll come to the rest of Brighton. A lot of people think Brighton are definitely going to change. Looks like lot few more people will be Even the Palace fans will No, they won't. They won't want you to win. >> Uh, it's good for business though. You and Kevin are busy. I imagine you're getting a lot more people listening to the podcast at the moment. >> Yeah, we we did a couple of City specials and we normally [clears throat] get sort of two to three,000 people on YouTube and I think we had 100,000 for each of them. >> Wow. Oh, really? >> So, so yeah. And you are interview 104. >> I've [laughter] actually kept I've actually got all these listed on a spreadsheet. >> Once you get to 115, you'll have to celebrate. Of course, [laughter] special. >> That's the magic number. >> Probably called a divorce actually, knowing knowing the way my wife feels about this. [laughter] >> Cheers, Karen. Thanks very much. >> Brilliant. Cheers, guys.