According to The Telegraph, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Tottenham Hotspur were informed of City's guilty verdict before a formal email was sent to the rest of the top flight on September 25. The Premier League recently confirmed that City were found guilty on all but one of their 115 financial charges.
The elite quartet's advanced notice stems from legal manoeuvres initiated back in 2024. These clubs have actively prepared compensation claims to ensure they are entitled to damages in the event that the sanctions against the Etihad giants are upheld.
The exact financial fallout from these potential legal claims remains uncertain. However, the sporting ramifications for City could drastically alter the landscape of English football if the initial ruling stands.
A wide range of unprecedented punishments have been mooted following the guilty verdict. Potential penalties include massive fines, transfer bans and severe points deductions. In the most extreme scenarios, City face being stripped of their previous league titles or suffering outright expulsion from the Premier League.
City strongly maintain their innocence and officially lodged an appeal ahead of last Friday's deadline. On October 1, the club released a statement confirming their pushback against the Premier League Commission's findings, labelling the initial opinion as "unsafe" and plagued by "clear material errors, of law, principle and fact."
The Etihad outfit insist they possess a "comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence" to clear their name across all accusations. The club's statement concluded: "We will continue to respect due process and are necessarily restricted in what we can say further until all proceedings are complete."
The fate of the club now rests with an independent three-person panel. They will oversee the appeal process, with a definitive resolution expected before the end of the year.
Until that final judgement is delivered, Enzo Maresca's side must navigate their current campaign under a cloud of unprecedented uncertainty. Meanwhile, their fiercest rivals will eagerly await the outcome of the appeal to determine the next steps in their compensation claims.