Manchester City could receive a verdict on their 115 Premier League charges by Christmas, according to their former financial advisor, who has blamed the protracted saga on the decision-making panel. The Premier League charged City in the early stages of 2023 for allegedly breaching financial rules over a nine-year period from 2009 to 2018. The hearing began over a year ago, but no verdict has been made public yet.

During the period in question, City won the Premier League three times - in 2012, 2014 and 2018. Since then, under Pep Guardiola's management, they have won it five more times. City continue to deny any wrongdoing, and a resolution could be reached before the end of the year.

Stefan Borson, the club's former advisor, told talkSPORT: "I think Simon thinks it's going to come out next year, I think it still could come out before Christmas. The decision has been imminent for quite some time, there's not a lot that they can do. It doesn't take that long."

City and their supporters have had to contend with suggestions that their dominance, which includes winning the treble in 2023, is tainted while this issue hangs over the club.

Borson also argued that neither City nor the Premier League should be blamed for the case dragging on for years. Instead, he claimed the panel deciding the verdict has allowed the saga to continue.

He stated: "Well, look, nobody knows because even the parties themselves expected to have been told by now. All the lawyers are surprised there is no decision at this stage, and that's on both sides. I'll tell you who's holding it up - the panel making the decision. They hold the pen. They are the people who everybody waits for to deliver the decision.

"Well, nobody knows. We know the long list - you can cobble it together from all of the people on the judicial panel - but we don't know who is on that list. We can make some guesses that it's probably two lawyers and maybe one accountant. But we don't know who is on the panel and what they were told to produce by when.

"We can now assume I think, given how long it has been and that everybody is so surprised that they don't have a decision, that actually there's very little guidance given to them and they weren't effectively paid for their time from the moment the case ended.

"Arguably the Premier and Manchester City together, with the panel, should have agreed a process whereby the hearing ends and then effectively they are exclusively paid to deliberate and produce, over let's say three months or at worst six months, the decision during the closed season."