⚖️ 𝗠𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆: 𝗠𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗲 𝗮 “𝗵𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗹” 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗹𝗹? In addition to the well-publicised appeal Man City is undertaking against the Commission’s liability decision, I suspect they have also initiated another appeal under Section X arbitration against the decision of the Independent Commission and the Appeal Board to determine the liability decision constitutes a “final award”. That was what allowed them to publish the decision at this stage of the process, to Man City’s great displeasure. I think they will argue that this has resulted in a procedural error that prejudices them, both in their substantive appeal against the liability decision and in their upcoming sanctioning by the Commission. I also reckon they will assert that sanctioning should not occur until this Section X appeal has been decided, which might delay that part of the process even further. If so, we might not hear anything more until 2027. Running a dual process of sanctioning based upon the initial decision, whilst also putting that decision through an appeal, is one thing. Running three concurrent processes with a Section X appeal challenging the entire process too would be overly complex. I suspect they’d sequence it and hold off on the sanctioning until it was concluded. A scenario such as this would also explain why the appendices have not been published and why the core decision is so heavily redacted. It would also explain a comment contained within the Premier League’s statement that says: “𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘨𝘶𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘴𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘨𝘶𝘦’𝘴 𝘙𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘴 – 𝙪𝙣𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙡𝙚𝙜𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙙𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙤 – 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘨𝘶𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘧𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘶𝘱𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴.” The implication is that they have been legally prevented from publication because “final awards” must be published, without redactions (other than for sensitive medical or safeguarding reasons). As it happens, I agree with Man City’s position. My perspective on the rules is that the liability decision should not have been considered a “final award” and should not have been published at this stage. However, I very much doubt Man City would have any success in such an appeal about the process and decision to publish at this stage because it’s not an unreasonable decision. There’s likely more than enough rationale to justify it. It would just slow down the sanctioning timeline.