THE HANDLING of the Manchester City case has been “damaging” for the Premier League, according to LaLiga president Javier Tebas.

The club was charged in February 2023 with over 100 alleged breaches of the league’s financial rules, which the club has always strenuously denied.

More than three years on there has still been no publicly announced outcome, with an independent commission having heard the case between September and December 2024.

Tebas said it was not so much the length of time being taken, but the fact it had created “uncertainty” around the application of rules, when other clubs had been charged and sanctioned over rule breaches all within the same timeframe.

“I understand that it’s a failure [of governance] — this happened with Manchester City and other clubs are looking and watching and listening,” he said at a media briefing at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit in London.

“[Other clubs are] being fined, having points deducted, and that’s fine if you don’t abide by the rules. But Manchester City has impunity. I speak to a lot of Premier League clubs, and the majority don’t understand this either. That makes the institution weaker.

“It’s not just the delay, it’s the general situation. When a great institution like the Premier League, when you have to have rules for financial fair play, you need to have a lot of legal certainty in the competition and among clubs.

“Citizens have to think that the system is fair to all, that it’s not arbitrary, that it’s objective. When you have this type of situation, you’re generating uncertainty and that’s damaging for an institution’s image.”

City have consistently denied any wrongdoing and have previously said they have a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence” to support their stance.

Tebas said his organisation had come under pressure when it had sought to enforce its rules, but said: “You just can’t give in, because the value of legal certainty is more important.

“We can’t be arbitrary, we have to be firm.”

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters was asked about the City case when he appeared at the same event later this afternoon.

“I can’t talk about it, I can’t talk about the timing of it,” he said.

Asked whether the case had made the Premier League consider whether there were ways to speed up any similar cases that might occur in the future, Masters said: “I simply can’t comment. Having spent three years not commenting, I’m not going to start now.

“Stepping aside from that [specific case], any regulator wants its judicial system to be efficient and work swiftly. That’s about as far as I can go.”