Wagatha Christie lawyer: “City fans may find themselves cheering Everton”

At-a-glance:

• Manchester City have been found guilty of almost all charges related to serious breaches of Premier League financial rules. 
• Paul Lunt argues this gives clubs a clearer basis for assessing potential compensation claims, although the detailed appendices have yet to be released.
• The outcome of Everton’s appeal against the £26m compensation award in favour of Burnley could also prove to be an important staging post in any such claims.
• Paul Lunt believes City’s continued reference to an “impartial” regulator, free from “partisan influence”, may point to a wider legal challenge.

Manchester City fans may find themselves cheering Everton on as the Merseyside club fights a compensation ruling that could have implications for potential claims against City, according to a lawyer who led Coleen Rooney’s Wagatha Christie defence.

Paul Lunt (Head of Litigation, Brabners), has worked on some of British sport’s highest-profile disputes and advises sports clubs and players on disciplinary cases and litigation. Alongside his famous win in the Wagatha Christie case, he has successfully represented former England cricket captains Ben Stokes and Michael Vaughan in disciplinary matters and secured a $400,000,000 settlement for the Commonwealth Games Federation when Victoria pulled out of hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games. 

Everton is appealing an order to pay Burnley £26m, plus interest, for its 2022 breach of Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR). Lunt says that appeal will be watched by clubs considering claims against City, particularly now that the Premier League has published findings that City used sham arrangements and misstated its accounts across nine seasons.

Paul's perspective on the City case

Paul said: “We might see the rather odd spectacle of City fans becoming Everton supporters for a while. In a legal first, Burnley was awarded £26m from another club for a financial rules breach. That’s why everyone is suddenly talking about compensation claims against City. But Everton is appealing the decision and the result will tell us more about how that route to compensation stands up when it’s challenged.

There’s a danger of getting ahead of the facts in the City case. We haven’t seen the granular detail behind the commission’s decision and the reported number of charges upheld tells you only so much about what kind of claim can be made by other clubs. The real detail sits within the 37 appendices to the decision, none of which have yet been published. You need to know exactly what the commission found and the facts it relied on to establish City's liability. Then a club has to work out what would have happened if the rules had been followed, show that it lost out and then put a value on that loss. That's a very different exercise from reading a headline and just adding up missed prize money. Likewise, when the commission comes to make its decision on what sanctions to apply, the reasoning relied upon will be illuminating.

The publication of the core decision gives other clubs much more to work with than the reports we had last week. What we can say is that it's a damning condemnation that only makes claims by other clubs all the more likely. The commission found sham arrangements and misstated accounts stretching across nine seasons. Those are significant findings. But there’s still a danger of jumping from those findings to an assumed compensation claim. 

English football could be entering a new era in which regulatory enforcement, appeals, sporting sanctions and private compensation claims are increasingly intersecting.

The Manchester City proceedings look certain to be the most influential sports regulatory decision of the modern Premier League era — not only because of the sanctions imposed but also because of the legal claims and regulatory lessons that could follow in their wake.”

Manchester City maintains its innocence and says that the process is ongoing.

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Read more from Paul on the City case.