Man City charges latest: Pep Guardiola shares new timeline, Premier League stance, Javier Tebas rant
March may well be the month Manchester City receive the verdict from a hearing into their alleged breaches of Premier League financial regulations.
Aston Villa, alongside the league's other clubs, will await the outcome with interest, especially as any potential punishments appear set to be severe should they be found guilty of all or most of their 130 charges. Man City, meanwhile, denies any wrongdoing and is adamant they have 'irrefutable evidence' to exonerate them.
The stasis continues over two years after the Premier League brought those charges. Here is a round-up of the latest before the beginning of March.
READ MORE: John Townley's Aston Villa player ratings as 8 and 9 awarded after 2-0 win vs Cardiff in the FA Cup
READ MORE: Jack Grealish stance made clear as Pep Guardiola admits 'problems' amid transfer talk
Premier League chief executive Richards Masters addressed the 'elephant in the room' while speaking at the Business of Football Summit in London this week. Asked by a journalist about when City will discover the verdict, Masters refused to divulge any details.
"You won't be surprised to hear that I won't be talking about this, I can't," he said. "I mean, the disciplinary panel has heard the case and they must be left alone now to consider their decision and given the time and space to be able to do that. That is pretty much as far as I can go."
La Liga president Javier Tebas also spoke at the Business of Football Summit and revealed he had reported Man City to the European Commission. "City have a lot of companies in their group which lie outside the City Football Group structure," he alleged: "extra companies where they put their expenses.
"These other companies lose the money but not the club itself. We have reported Manchester City to the EU. We have the facts and figures.
"We asked for City to be checked. It's very important that all clubs are subject to the same transparency rules and governance on both the sporting and financial side.
"The City case is one where we believe they have put the losses on the companies that are not officially part of City Football Group. City have costs that are less than if they didn't have this circle of companies around."
Man City manager Pep Guardiola refused to respond to what Tebas said. "Next," he replied when a journalist raised the question during a pre-match press conference before their FA Cup fifth round tie against Plymouth Argyle this weekend.
"Next, next," he repeated as the question continued. However, a query about why Man City are the target of such targeting by others did draw a response from Guardiola.
"I don't know," he replied. "It happened in the past for UEFA, and now, in a few weeks for the Premier League [we will get] the sentence. We wait, and after we talk."
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