Man City chairman makes ‘promise’ on 115 Premier League charges

Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has promised he will give his ‘blunt views’ on the Premier League’s 115 charges when the situation is resolved.

The English top flight brought 115 allegations against the Blues in February which relate to financial mismanagement, and the case will be judged by an independent panel. City have strenuously denied these charges and claimed at time the time they were ‘surprised’ by the news but ‘welcomed the review’ and the opportunity to share their ‘comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence’.

There has been little news since that February announcement, although it was recently reported that City had lodged a complaint against the Premier League in relation to the handling of the 115 charges, with the champions ‘disputing the legality of the investigation’ and questioning the impartially of the head of the independent panel, Murray Rosen KC, who is an Arsenal fan.

But speaking in the aftermath of City claiming the Champions League and the treble, Khaldoon spoke on record for the first time about the charges and seemed to imply the process will not be wrapped up soon.

“So obviously I can’t talk about them [the charges] unfortunately for legal reasons. And what I would typically always do is comment after, so I think we’re going to go through, we’re going through the legal process,” the club chairman said.

“These are proceedings that take whatever time they take and when we’re done, we’ll have a conversation,” he added. I’ll give you my very blunt views, I promise you that. I have very strong views on that, but I am going to be unfortunately very restrained today.”

While this is the first time Khaldoon has officially spoken about the matter, Pep Guardiola has previously addressed the charges. The ex-Barcelona manager claimed City were ‘already condemned’ when asked four days after the news broke.

“I would say we are lucky we live in a marvellous country where we have a society where everyone is innocent until proven guilty,” he added at the time. We didn’t have this opportunity. We are already sentenced and tough. What is going to happen I don’t know.”