Are they popping the champagne at Bird & Bird? – The Lawyer

In one of the most significant legal decisions in sporting history, the Premier League is reported to have won its high profile case against Manchester City.

According to reports in The Athletic and The Times, the club has been found guilty of nearly all of the 115 charges levelled against it by the Premier League.

The decision is yet to be confirmed by either side, but if correct, it could lead to significant punishments for City.

A City spokesperson said: “The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements to be completed, and subject to strict confidentiality. As such Manchester City’s position remains consistent with the club’s statement of February 2023.

“The club has diligently respected due process for eight years on the basis that the Premier League board and executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from partisan influence.”

The Premier League called on Bird & Bird partner Max Duthie and Blackstone Chambers silks Andrew Hunter KC and Adam Lewis KC to bring the case back in 2023.

Bird & Bird has long been one of the leading sports law firms in the country.

Duthie began his career as a professional rugby player for Sale, on the other side of Manchester from the Etihad, before turning to law.

He joined Bird & Bird from Hammonds in 2006, alongside Bird & Bird’s now head of sport Jonathan Taylor KC. He previously accompanied the British and Irish Lions on tours as their legal officer, and has previously represented the Premier League against Hull City and Liverpool.

Hunter acted as lead counsel for the Premier League. Taking silk in 2012, Hunter is considered one of the best cross-examiners at the Bar. He also appeared for the Premier League in City’s case over the APT Rules in 2024.

Named in The Lawyer’s Hot 100 in 2025, a victory for the Premier League would mean he has won two of the biggest pieces of litigation in London in recent years, also succeeding in the Privatbank case at the end of 2025.

Hunter worked alongside chambers colleague Adam Lewis KC. Lewis has acted extensively for both the Premier League and the EFL, including in cases against Sheffield United and Everton concerning financing breaches. The silk quite literally wrote the book on sports law, alongside Taylor, first publishing Sport: Law and Practice in 2002 and the latest edition released in 2021.

The leading silks worked alongside Jason Pobjoy KC, who took silk last year, as well as Shane Sibbel, Tom Cleaver, Will Bordell, Emmeline Plews and Femi Adekoya.

A guilty verdict would likely lead to follow on litigation from other clubs seeking compensation.

Multiple clubs have already launched holding claims against Manchester City, in case the club was found guilty.

Burnley is believed to be the first club to have successfully claimed financial compensation from a rival, winning nearly £40m from Everton for its own rule breaches earlier this year. That case is on appeal.

Claims against City may be significantly higher, however, given the team’s success over many years.

“Those clubs will argue that, had City complied with the financial rules, they would have finished higher and therefore earned more prize money, or in some cases qualified for European competition or avoided relegation with the associated financial consequences,” Macfarlanes partner Fred Snowball said.

“Those claims would be enormously complex and, until very recently, largely unprecedented. To succeed, a club needs to prove would have happened on the balance of probabilities over a decade in a league of twenty clubs, season by season, had City’s spending been constrained. Modelling the impact of Everton’s overspending in the Burnley case was very complex, and that concerned just a single season.”

“Players at rival clubs could also bring claims for lost prize money, bonuses, and career opportunities. Those claims would be novel but not without foundation.”