City hit back at Premier League claims

was also annoyance the club had been given no prior sight of charges that allege they have breached financial regulations on more than 100 occasions, following a fouryear investigation with which it is claimed they failed to fully co-operate.

It’s three years since UEFA pursued a similar case and handed them a two-year European ban and £25million fine, later successfully appealed at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with the ban overturned and the fine reduced to £9m.

If that had been a body blow, the Premier League charge is one which could be a knockout, with points deductions, suspension or even a league expulsion.

It seems unlikely sanctions will reach the top end of the scale and, with no timeframe for a commission which hasn’t even established its panel members yet, a resolution will not be quick.

City appeared confident the worst will be avoided, their statement insisting there was a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position.”

They do have a right to appeal any sanction issued by the independent commission but will not be able to take the matter to CAS this time.

When they went to CAS in 2020, the court ruled that several of the charges were “time-barred”, meaning they could not be investigated on account of the time elapsed.

Some felt that proved City were guilty and had got off on a technicality. But the club insist the opposite was true, with their evidence refuting those allegations also inadmissible on account of it being “time-barred” too.

The charges, principally the same ones UEFA pursued, are that between 2009 and 2018