City’s 115 charges are a dark cloud hanging over our game. Stop pussy-footing around and sort it out now

I MUST say I was astonished to hear the top man at the Premier League say this week that a date has been set for the commission hearing into Manchester City’s 115 charges over breaching spending rules — but he won’t tell us what it is.

I heard some waffle about the need for confidentiality. Well, I’m sorry, but I happen to believe the reputation and credibility of the Premier League and our football matter a great deal more.

Make no mistake, the Premier League’s reputation is being dragged through the gutter by our game’s apparent inability to govern itself. City should have been before the commission long ago to answer for themselves.

Premier League boss Richard Masters is obviously under pressure. He knows people think City are being treated differently to other clubs. Especially when, in the same week, Everton find themselves charged for breaching sustainability rules, two months after being deducted 10 points. (How does that work by the way? Can you be charged for the same crime twice?) But he’s thrown petrol on the fire by not divulging a date that he admits is set.

The City case is more complex than those of Everton and Nottingham Forest, but the Premier League’s investigation of those alleged crimes began five years ago. Are you seriously telling me that for all that time these charges have been out there, yet they can’t get them into court to test City’s innocence or guilt?

I was struck by a discussion of the issue with one of City’s former finance advisers, Stefan Borson, who said on talkSPORT that City would be relegated if convicted. We really are talking about potentially one of the biggest stories British football has known. It has become a dark cloud hovering over our game.

There are plenty of envious football administrators and fans, in countries like Spain, Germany and Italy, who will hate the way the Premier League has eclipsed their game. Those countries are looking for a stick to beat us with. By failing to govern ourselves, we are giving them one.

I assure you some European clubs will be licking their lips — especially those which have been thwarted in their efforts to launch a Super League and win back revenues lost to the Premier League.

If you’re involved in the Premier League, surely you want to bring this to a point where City are acquitted or found guilty? Surely you want to be seen as a body capable of ensuring your member clubs are operating within the rule book?

I believe City have a responsibility to help bring this to a head, once and for all. From the outside looking in, this would just appear to be a group of their lawyers kicking the can down the road and hoping the problem diminishes or just goes away.

I recall that when UEFA imposed a two-year Champions League ban on City in 2020, it was revealed that one of the club’s executives had said he would be happy for the club to spend the €30million they were fined on the 50 best lawyers in the world for the next 10 years. City appealed, won and were reinstated in the Champions League — because the judges ruled the charges had been made too late.

These 115 charges relate to the Premier League’s sustainability rules. Are City approaching this with the same tactics they used when UEFA charged them? They have the deepest pockets of all and can pay the best lawyers for however long it takes. If you’re innocent, why the need to drag things out and keep kicking that can? Surely it’s in City’s interests to resolve this?

I really hope we find the club are not guilty. We have seen some of the most beautiful football from them in recent years. It would be terrible to see a stain on that achievement.

If they are convicted, it would tarnish our Premier League unimaginably. It is simply too big an issue to let anyone drag it out.

For the sake of the Premier League and English football as a whole, let’s get it dealt with and stop pussy-footing around. It needs confronting now.