Premier League To Shell Out £50 Million Bill For Legal Battles
The Premier League had reportedly only anticipated fees of £8million and questions are said to be raised over their legal bill at a shareholders meeting later on Thursday.
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The Premier League are set for a huge £50 million bill in legal fees after a series of investigations and arbitration hearings. The Premier League spent more than UK£45 million (US$60 million) on legal costs last season as it fights to uphold its rules.
According to reports which claim the league’s legal bill has soared after investigations into Manchester City, Chelsea, Everton, Nottingham Forest and Leicester City, the £50m bill last season is almost six times the amount the organisation had earmarked for.
The Premier League had reportedly only anticipated fees of £8million and questions are said to be raised over their legal bill at a shareholders meeting later on Thursday.
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The figure is contained in papers sent to clubs ahead of a shareholders’ meeting on Thursday in central London.
The league has been caught up in a web of investigations, disciplinary arbitration processes, and appeals.There have been two significant costs involving Manchester City after an unprecedented number of cases, while it is also probing Chelsea over alleged irregularities in payments linked to the club’s former owner Roman Abramovich.
To add to that, there have been legal cases connected to its profit and sustainability rules (PSR) involving Everton and Nottingham Forest, who were docked points last season, and Leicester City who will not now face an independent commission over an alleged breach.
Sources have indicated that league bosses are likely to defend the spiralling legal costs – which are paid for from central funds – by emphasizing the need to uphold rules and referring to the high number of recent cases.with Premier League chiefs expected to explain the costs incurred have been an effort to protect the integrity of the competition and enforce the rules and regulations.
Last month Premier League chief executive Richard Masters told reporters, “Profit and Sustainability Rules are now in place and we are starting to see clubs breach, and fans having to experience the uncertainty that creates. We want to move to a new system that people have confidence in and can comply with and move away perhaps from long-running regulatory cases.”
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