A key part of City’s defence will be that the Independent Commission relied too heavily on the emails obtained through the Football Leaks files.<\/p>\n
“If City can demonstrate the Commission fundamentally misunderstood the emails, failed to consider their proper context or reached conclusions inconsistent with other contemporaneous documents, that could amount to a material factual error,” Severn added. <\/p>\n
“City’s difficulty is that the Commission heard extensive witness and documentary evidence but nevertheless made serious findings of sham arrangements and disguised owner funding.”<\/p>\n
Kieran Maguire, professor of football finance at the University of Liverpool<\/a>, told BBC Sport the commission found “the documents were retrofitted to fit the crime”. <\/p>\n “The Commission must have concluded that the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses put up by Manchester City<\/a> were poor,” Maguire said.<\/p>\n “However, from a legal point of view, this is an area they could attack if Manchester City<\/a>‘s team can prove that the commission itself was a flawed construct in the sense that the members were Premier League picks rather than Manchester City<\/a>‘s, and therefore the deck was stacked against the club to begin with. <\/p>\n “But that seems remote.” <\/p>\n Severn added that the retired senior judges and leading barristers, who sat on the Commission, have “spent their careers interpreting complicated facts, dealing with witnesses and applying relevant weight to evidence”.<\/p>\n While adding that it would be “impossible to assess reliably” the chances of City winning their appeal, Severn added that “doing so will not be easy”. <\/p>\n But Maguire believes that while it will be difficult for City to be successful, “there is a route”.<\/p>\n City have brought in Mark Howard KC to advise the club in their appeal, while Etihad Airways has enlisted the services of respected law firm Quinn Emanuel.<\/p>\n