Manchester City is not battling for the Premier League this season, but it continues to battle with the Premier League away from the field of play. The ongoing wrangling means Liverpool and others may need to wait for an anticipated rule change.
"115 charges" has become useful shorthand for the case the Premier League has brought against Manchester City, with an initial ruling from the independent commission expected in the coming weeks or months (although any verdict could then be subject to an appeal before an entirely new panel). But in fact, the Etihad outfit is facing even more charges than that.
And even that is not the end of the story. Ostensibly separate from those proceedings, Man City has also launched two actions of its own against Premier League rules on Associated Party Transactions (APTs), which limit the ability of ownership-affiliated groups to inject funds into clubs via sponsorship deals.
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It is these cases that could hold up Premier League rule changes, according to The Times, with Liverpool and the other sides in the division set to attend a meeting tomorrow. That concerns the successor to Profitability and Sustainability Regulations (PSR).
The league is set to scrap PSR, which has proved unpopular among lots of its members. But there is not expected to be a vote at tomorrow's meeting on what comes next, with some clubs feeling that any such action would be pointless until Manchester City's APT proceedings have come to an end (there is also a legal threat from the PFA in the background).
The front-runner to replace PSR, which requires clubs not to make a loss of more than £105m (approximately $131m) over a rolling three-year period, is known as the Squad Cost Rule. Adopted already by UEFA, it limits clubs to spending a fixed amount of its revenue on wages, transfers, and agent fees.
There is also a proposal known as anchoring on the table, which could run alongside the Squad Cost Rule. It would cap player costs at five times the revenue of what the bottom club in the Premier League receives in TV and prize money, although the Times says that both Manchester clubs object to that idea.
When it comes to the Squad Cost Rule, the legal status of the APT regulations is highly relevant. Only being allowed to spend a certain percentage of revenue is basically a dead letter in the event that clubs are permitted to essentially generate revenue at will via parties linked to the ownership.
And it is for this reason that Liverpool and others may have to wait to settle the future of the Premier League's financial regulation landscape. The courtroom is increasingly becoming as important as the dressing room in modern football.
In the meantime, however, Liverpool will continue doing what it is doing on the pitch. Despite spending less than any other side in the Premier League on transfer fees this season, Arne Slot's side leads the way.
Manchester City, meanwhile, has completely fallen out of contention. There is a certain irony in the fact that Pep Guardiola's side faces the threat of potential competitive sanctions in the one season where it does not find itself in the running for the title anyway.
But of couse, that outcome is still very much up in the air, with Man City continuing to insist upon its innocence. Regardless, whatever new financial rules come in — and whenever they arrive — Liverpool will be in a good position, having worked out how to reach the top sustainably.
