Lawyer who beat Man City already shared his view on 115 charges relegation

Top sports lawyer Nick de Marco KC has said that Manchester City should not face relegation, even if they are found guilty of any of their 115 financial charges. De Marco represented ex-City defender Benjamin Mendy as he won the majority of his £11million claim for unpaid wages against his former club earlier this month.

Mendy took City to a two-day employment tribunal in Manchester, claiming that they had wrongly stopped his £500,000-a-month salary after he was charged with sex offences and remanded in custody in August 2021.

As Mendy’s trial commenced and his imprisonment continued for five months, City ceased paying his wages until what would have been the conclusion of his contract in June 2023. Mendy was subsequently cleared of all the charges against him.

De Marco represented Mendy in his subsequently employment tribunal claim against City, where employment judge Joanne Dunlop ruled that Mendy was “entitled to recover some, but not all of the sums claimed.” Despite having acted against City on that occasion, De Marco has publicly stated his stance against relegating the club as a potential outcome of their Financial Fair Play (FFP) hearing.

“In my view, things as important as promotion and relegation should be determined on the pitch,” De Marco expressed in an interview with The Times.

“It spoils the game for it to be determined by people like me; lawyers, accountants and ex-lawyers, who are arbitrators, hearing legal arguments behind closed doors. I’m going to make my money out of it, that’s my business. But I don’t necessarily think it’s right.”

De Marco also dismissed the idea of a points deduction – a penalty previously imposed on clubs like Everton and Nottingham Forest – emphasising that such measures should be a last resort, reports the Mirror.

“As a football fan, I really do think points deductions should be the very last thing people look at for breaches,” he added. “Yet it’s becoming a routine starting point and I do think that spoils a lot of the fun and entertainment of the game.

“I can see the argument for points deductions, because they can be the best way to redress a sporting advantage given the obvious flaws with financial penalties.

“If you are a very wealthy owner – intent on just spending anything in breach of the rules – you’re not going to worry too much about financial penalty, but I still think point deductions should be a last resort.”

The Premier League brought charges against City in 2023, but the private hearing didn’t commence until this September. No details from the hearing have been made public as it is being conducted behind closed doors. The hearing is anticipated to conclude in early December, having run for nine weeks out of an estimated ten. However, a verdict is not expected until the season’s end.