Man City get clearest 115 charges case hint yet as Arsenal to learn 'imminent' verdict

Manchester City have been at war with the Premier League over alleged financial breaches and verdict finally looks set to arrive

Former Manchester City financial advisor Stefan Borson has admitted it is possible a final verdict on the club's alleged financial charges could be made public before Christmas. An eight-week hearing in London took place last year between the Premier League and City with the outcome of that pushed back throughout 2025.

Borson has now made a new admission on when he is expecting the verdict to come out and why there has been a hefty delay. "I think Simon [Jordan] thinks it's going to come out next year, I think it still could come out before Christmas," Borson said on talkSPORT.

"The decision has been imminent for quite some time, there's not a lot that they can do. It doesn't take that long."

On why there has been such a significant wait for the outcome, he earlier stated: "Well, look, nobody knows because even the parties themselves expected to have been told by now.

"All the lawyers are surprised there is no decision at this stage, and that's on both sides.

"I'll tell you who's holding it up - the panel making the decision. They hold the pen. They are the people who everybody waits for to deliver the decision.

"Well, nobody knows. We know the long list - you can cobble it together from all of the people on the judicial panel - but we don't know who is on that list.

"We can make some guesses that it's probably two lawyers and maybe one accountant. But we don't know who is on the panel and what they were told to produce by when.

"We can now assume I think, given how long it has been and that everybody is so surprised that they don't have a decision, that actually there's very little guidance given to them and they weren't effectively paid for their time from the moment the case ended.

"Arguably the Premier and Manchester City together, with the panel, should have agreed a process whereby the hearing ends and then effectively they are exclusively paid to deliberate and produce, over let's say three months or at worst six months, the decision during the closed season."

However, there is no guarantee the verdict does come before the conclusion of 2025 with Pep Guardiola way off in his prediction from February about when the outcome would come out.

"In one month, I think there will be a verdict and a sentence," he said. "After that, we will see my opinion of what happened so far."

City continue to vehemently deny any wrongdoing regarding breaking financial fair play rules over a nine-year period from 2009 until 2018.

The transfer window activity of City also suggest there are minimal concerns internally that a severe punishment will be faced with Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders all joining in the last 12 months.