Ex-Man City chairman says club's £440m spending 'making a mockery' of Premier League charges

Former Manchester City chairman David Bernstein says the club's remarkable £440million spending in the recent summer transfer market makes a 'mockery' of Premier League regulation in the top flight. The 83-year-old, who was also FA Chair from 2011-13, has questioned the Premier League's handling of the case.

Man City were charged with 115 breaches of the Premier League's financial rules in February 2023, and a 12-week hearing concluded in December 2024. However, there's been radio silence since then, with the independent commission yet to publish a ruling on the complex case.

The club have strongly denied the allegations, and there's growing unrest on all sides regarding the time taken to reach an outcome. Premier League chief executive Richard Masters admitted that the verdict had taken longer than expected.

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City, who spent £440million in the transfer window, including equalling the British-record transfer fee on Enzo Fernandez for £125m, as well as signing Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest for £116m and Ayyoub Bouaddi for £86m

The former City chief has become the latest vocal critic to hit out a the time taken to reach a verdict. In the Sunday Times, Bernstein wrote: "The fact they have done this (transfer spend) against the background of the 115 Premier League charges is extraordinary and makes a mockery of regulation in England's top division, supposedly the best-run league in the world.

"Why the league decided to prosecute all 115 alleged offences is a mystery to me. Surely common sense (often in short supply) would point to simplifying the process by taking a handful of the bigger, clearer issues and pursuing these as specimen cases.

"Justice delayed is justice denied, and the longer this process is drawn out, the more the resulting implications and challenges are compounded."

Speaking last month, Masters claimed the noise in the boardrooms up and down the country was not as loud as online speculation might suggest.

"I obviously speak to clubs all the time," he said last month. "It's not necessarily a topic of conversation that is top of the list. (There are) Lots of other things to talk about and do. The Premier League moves on. It's starting (again) on Friday evening."

Masters has however, expressed his frustration at the time taken for the independent panel to return a verdict. He said: "The process is the process.

"It will resolve itself. But as you know, I literally can't say a thing about it. There's only one available option, which is to allow the process to reach its natural conclusion.

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