00:00What Manchester City are being accused of is effectively corporate fraud over a nine-year
00:06period. They've been lying to the Premier League in relation to their finances.
00:16City have effectively been accused of three things by the Premier League.
00:21First of all, they've been artificially inflating the money coming into the club.
00:27So they've been claiming that they've received money from sponsors but actually it was handouts
00:33from the owner. The second accusation is that City have been paying people off the grid. The most
00:41high-profile accusation is that Roberto Mancini was being paid around about £2 million a year by City
00:49and he was being paid a further £2 million by a football club in Abu Dhabi for four days worth
00:55a
00:55year. People say, well, why does that matter? Well, it's because under the cost control rules,
01:00you're allowed to lose £105 million over three years. The third accusation against Manchester City
01:08is that they've not cooperated with the Premier League. That City's response to this is,
01:14well, hold on, all of these charges are coming through the fact that somebody's hacked our email
01:20system. Why would we cooperate with anybody who's trying to charge us on the basis of hacking our IT
01:28system? The sanctions range from financial penalties in terms of fines to sporting penalties
01:33in terms of deductions or relegation or stripping of titles. So all of those things are kind of within
01:40the arc of what the Premier League can do. The biggest question is whether they will do.
01:46We're looking at a cost for both parties in excess of £100 million in terms of legal and witness fees.
01:54That money's got to come out of somebody's pocket. If City lose, it will have to come out of theirs.
02:00If City win, all the other clubs in the Premier League, they'll be on the hook for it.
