Legal firms began approaching Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in the days around the verdict to tell them they are in a position to pursue damages, reporting by The Athletic’s David Ornstein has indicated.

For those four clubs, the legal groundwork was laid more than a year ago. In September 2024, each instructed lawyers to serve City Football Group with formal notice that they reserved the right to seek compensation. As Sam Wallace of The Telegraph noted, no other Premier League club joined in: Chelsea and the remaining 14 members declined.

Their concern at the time was procedural. A six-year statute of limitations was about to expire. The allegations first surfaced in November 2018 through leaked documents published by German magazine Der Spiegel, so preserving their position before the anniversary was essential.

What the claims could be worth

The scale is speculative but substantial. Estimates put the potential loss of prize money, broadcasting revenue and prize-fund distortion over the charged period at more than £200m across the four clubs, with other analyses pitching individual figures above £100m per club. Nothing has been formally filed.

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The mechanism under which the clubs would file sits in Section W of the Premier League’s competition rules, which allows a member to pursue damages for losses caused by another member’s rule breaches. Every figure quoted so far is a projection: any claim would have to be argued case by case, and damages would depend on what each club could prove it had lost.

Appeal window and the timetable ahead

An independent commission found Manchester City guilty on 114 of the 115 charges relating to the seasons between 2009-10 and 2017-18 on Friday. The club has 14 days to lodge an appeal, placing the deadline in the second week of October.

If City appeal, a fresh three-person commission would rehear the case, and its decision would be final: the Court of Arbitration for Sport is not open to them this time. That process alone is expected to take months, and if City then pursue action in the High Court, one analysis put a definitive resolution as much as two years away.

That timeline matters for the rivals. Sanctions against City have not been set, and any compensation claim would almost certainly wait until the appeal has run its course.

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City’s position

Manchester City have conceded no ground. Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, in an open letter to supporters, framed the process as far from over.

“The Premier League process still has a long way to run, and our confidence and intent in proving the club’s innocence is just as strong as when this began.”

The club has consistently denied the charges since they were brought in February 2023. A six-week hearing concluded at the end of 2024, and Friday’s ruling is the first formal step in what could be years of proceedings. The appeal deadline falls in the second week of October.

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