Rob Lowe

Manchester City’s reiteration of their “confidence and intent in proving the club’s innocence” given their “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence” is incredibly at odds with their own behaviour and the intensity in which they blocked the Premier League’s process of investigation at every step since December 2018. The scale of their obstructing was revealed in a July 2021 British court judgment. City simply refused to supply information and documents requested by the league, which then issued a disciplinary complaint in August 2019. The club challenged the disciplinary process and the commission that was set up. The league proposed an ad hoc procedure of appointing a new commission, but City objected to that too. The PL were forced to bring legal arbitration against the club, to be decided by a tribunal of three senior lawyers. City countered the PL had no power to do that, and challenged the impartiality of the tribunal. That was rejected and the club were again ordered to submit all the documentation and info. City then appealed to the high court to strike the tribunal down. In March 2021, a judge ruled against the club and that her findings should be published. City unsuccessfully fought against it being made public knowledge; the judgement published in July illustrated just how hard and long they resisted providing information. With all that confidence, intent and irrefutable evidence, why the YEARS of non-cooperation and active, intensive blocking?