City players could potentially seek to terminate their contracts if the independent commission’s guilty verdict survives the appeal process, according to a leading employment barrister.
Paul Gilroy KC has outlined an argument under which players could claim the findings against Man City amount to a breach of the relationship between employer and employee. It is the latest potential consequence to emerge since the Premier League published the commission’s findings earlier this week.
The suggestion does not mean City’s players are automatically entitled to walk away from their contracts. Any attempt to do so would be a significant legal step and would depend on the circumstances surrounding individual agreements.
Paul Gilroy KC raises Man City contract possibility
The development was carried overnight in Sky Sports’ Paper Talk, citing the Daily Mirror.
Gilroy, an employment and sports law barrister, has raised the possibility that players could rely on the implied contractual duty of trust and confidence between an employer and employee.
Speaking on Stick to Football, Gilroy explained that such a term exists in employment contracts even when it isn’t expressly written into them. A player could potentially argue that the club’s conduct had breached that trust and confidence.
Whether that argument would succeed is another question. Gilroy himself stressed that the situation would depend on several factors, including how the club dealt with its players and the financial circumstances involved.
That makes the position considerably more nuanced than the prospect of City’s squad suddenly becoming free agents.
City verdict creates questions beyond possible sanctions
The Premier League confirmed on Tuesday that the independent commission had found City guilty of all charges relating to serious breaches of its financial rules across a nine-season period.
The commission found that City had arranged what it described as “sham” contracts with commercial partners and relied on other “sham” agreements as part of a disguised funding scheme. It said the arrangements artificially inflated the club’s revenues and reduced its costs by more than £900m.
City were also found significantly to have breached Premier League and UEFA spending limits, while three of four alleged breaches concerning their duty to co-operate and act in good faith towards the League were upheld.
City deny wrongdoing and have made clear they intend to appeal. The club has until today, Friday 2 October, to exercise that right.
No sanction has yet been imposed. That will be dealt with separately, with the independent commission having broad discretion over the punishment it can apply.
Attention has consequently focused heavily on possible points deductions, fines and other sporting sanctions. Gilroy’s comments raise a different question: whether the findings could eventually have implications for contracts between City and their players.
Could Man City players actually leave for free?
There is no indication at this stage that any City player intends to challenge their contract on these grounds.
Nor has it been established that such a challenge would succeed. Football contracts operate within a complicated regulatory and employment framework, and any dispute involving a high-value player would potentially carry enormous legal and financial consequences.
The appeal is also crucial. City maintain their innocence and have described the commission’s opinion as containing “clear material errors, of law, principle and fact”.
For now, Gilroy’s intervention identifies a possible consequence rather than an imminent exodus from the Etihad Stadium.
City supporters are likely to hear plenty more about player contracts while the wider process continues. What they haven’t heard is that any member of Enzo Maresca’s squad actually wants to use this argument to leave.
That remains an important line between an intriguing legal possibility and a transfer story that, at present, does not exist.
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