‘English football’s biggest and most controversial contest is set to begin’

Finally, after years of build-up, perhaps English football’s biggest and most controversial contest is set to begin.

On one side, the Premier League. On the other, its defending champions and dominant force Manchester City.

City face 115 charges for allegedly breaking the financial rules of the competition they have won for a record-breaking four consecutive seasons.

Those charges will be heard at an independent hearing, which is set to start on Monday at an unknown location, subject to any late legal delays. Billed as sport’s ‘trial of the century’, it is expected to run for 10 weeks, with a verdict expected in early 2025.

It marks a defining stage in a legal dispute the like of which the game has never seen and which could bring seismic consequences for both sides.

This, after all, involves one of the world’s most successful clubs being accused of serial cheating by the very league it has dominated for years. A club at the centre of a global network of 13 teams across five continents, owned by a billionaire member of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family, whose sovereign wealth has transformed the landscape of the sport.

The case involves an unprecedented catalogue of 115 allegations spread over 14 seasons, including multiple charges of subverting the regulations by failing to provide accurate financial information.

City have always strongly denied the charges, and while the speculation is intensifying, no-one knows what the outcome – expected early next year – will be.

If found guilty of the most serious charges, City would risk being forever associated with one of the biggest financial scandals in sport. City could, in theory, face a points deduction serious enough to condemn them to relegation – or even expulsion – from the Premier League.

Such a fate would cast a long shadow over City’s achievements, plunge the future of the manager and squad into uncertainty, and possibly spark claims for compensation from other clubs. It has been suggested that such a stain on the reputation of City and the club’s owners could even affect Britain’s relationship with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a key Gulf ally and trading partner – whose president is the brother of the club’s majority owner Sheikh Mansour.

Equally, if City are cleared following a legal battle that is already thought to have cost both sides tens of millions of pounds, major questions will be asked of the Premier League.

But whatever verdict is reached after a hearing set to last several weeks, the impact could be profound, dictating the story of this season.

Read Dan Roan’s full explainer of the Premier League’s case against Manchester City