Man City Punishment Timeline: How Long Will Appeal Take, When Will This End?

There is a clearly defined deadline for Manchester City’s appeal process.

Manchester City are in a limbo period. | Visionhaus/Getty Images

Manchester City’s confidence is infectious. The underfire club reacted to the guilty verdict delivered by an independent panel by defiantly declaring their innocence and stressing: “The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements uncompleted.”

The rhetoric was so convincing even a spokesperson for the U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham considered the matter to be far from closed. “If wrongdoing is established...” a statement read. It had to be subsequently altered to, “Wherever wrongdoing is established...”

Wrongdoing has been established after a thorough investigation of more than two years, however the idea that this is far from over is also correct. City have appealed and warned that no stone will be left unturned in their fight against this “Premier League conspiracy theory.”

Untangling all those webs will still take some time.

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How Long Will Appeal Process Take?

The appeal process could get Enzo Maresca’s thumbs up. | Peter Byrne/PA Images/Getty Images

Thanks to new regulations brought in by the Premier League, there is a clear timeline which the appeal process has to follow. A new three-person panel will have to conduct a five-day hearing within 12 weeks of the appeal being lodged.

From that point—which just so happens to fall on Christmas Eve—the independent body has 30 days to deliver their verdict. At the latest, we will have an answer before the end of January.

• Appeal made: Oct. 1, 2026
• Duration of hearing: Five days
• Deadline for appeal conclusion: Dec. 24, 2026
• Deadline for appeal verdict: Jan. 23, 2027

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What Will Man City Be Appealing?

Manchester City are preparing a new legal case. | Mike Morese/MI News/NurPhoto/Getty Images

This is not a retrial. Manchester City can only appeal on the basis of any procedural errors or material errors of law. The club hinted at what this may be in a spiky response to the official verdict:

“The club has diligently respected due process for eight years on the basis that the Premier League Board and Executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from partisan influence. The club is obviously restricted in what it can say further until all future proceedings are complete.” The implication being that independence, impartiality, fair-mindedness or non-partisan influence was not adhered to.

Historic cases offer an example of what City could be looking for. The Chinese three-time Olympic gold medallist Sun Yang had an eight-year doping ban briefly overturned by Switzerland’s highest court after successfully arguing that one of the arbitrators on the panel was not impartial. After combing through thousands of old social media posts, Sun’s lawyers found that the arbitrator “castigates a Chinese practice of dog slaughter and denounces the consumption of this meat at a local festival in China.”

It remains to be seen what City’s legal team can dig up about the independent commission’s panel. The appeal board have almost every available power at its disposal, including:

• allow the appeal;
• dismiss the appeal;
• except in the case of a fixed penalty, vary any penalty imposed or order made at first instance;
• vary or discharge any order for compensation made by the Commission;
• order the deposit to be forfeited to the League or repaid to the appellant;
• order a party to pay or contribute to the costs of the appeal including the fees and expenses of members of the Appeal Board;
• remit the matter back to the Commission or Interim Commission with directions as to its future disposal;
• make such other order as it thinks fit.

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What Can Man City Do After an Appeal?

Lord Pannick KC’s work isn’t over. | Lucy North/PA Images/Getty Images

Should City fail with their appeal, they can still take the case to an independent arbitrator. However, this can only happen if a verdict has been:

• reached outside of the jurisdiction of the body that made the decision;
• reached as a result of fraud, malice or bad faith;
• reached as a result of procedural errors so great that the rights of the applicant have been clearly and substantially prejudiced;
• reached as a result of a perverse interpretation of the law;
• one which could not reasonably have been reached by any Commission or Appeal Board which had applied its mind properly to the facts of the case.

After that, there is the break-glass emergency option of taking the case to the High Court where City could question if the Premier League’s rules adhere to U.K. competition law.

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When Will This End?

Khaldoon Al Mubarak (left) and Ferran Soriano will not let this lie. | Matt McNulty/Getty Images

This affair doesn’t look like being wrapped up any time soon. The sports law specialist, Paul Gilroy KC, appeared on a recent recording of Stick to Football. “I heard Jill [Scott] saying this morning, ‘It’d be great to have this finished by the end of the season.’ Good luck with that one,” he scoffed.

“Never mind this season or the next or maybe the next five seasons.”

In the unblinking address to camera Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano delivered to club staff in the wake of the verdict, he warned: “We will now be relentless in our work. We will focus on the independent appeal process and also all other legal avenues available to us in order to win the case, and we will take all necessary action to protect the club and seek compensation from any party that tries to damage it now, and in the future.”

It took almost eight years from the start of the Premier League investigation to reach a first guilty verdict. Yet, as City have been keen to tell anyone who will listen, the process is still ongoing.

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