Football regulator shares when Manchester City appeal outcome is expected

Andy Burnham speaks out about his involvement with Manchester City's owners. City were found guilty of breaching 114 Premier League financial rules last month and lodged an appeal against the verdict.

The club has consistently denied any wrongdoing after being found to have inflated their revenue by £900million from the 2009-10 season to 2017-18. Commenting on when he expects an outcome, Kogan told Times Radio: "The Premier League have said that they want to get this resolved within season and actually, of course, it's not the Premier League, it's an independent commission that's going to hear this, made of three retired either judges or lawyers.

My understanding is there is a prescribed process, which is 12 weeks, and so people are assuming this will actually be heard by the middle or the end of January. But as I say, it's not our process, it's that of the Premier League's independent commission.

What I don't think we can do is take any judgment until we're quite clear. Obviously, City claim that they have some form of silver bullet to put off these charges and win the appeal, and we're not there to judge whether that's right or wrong yet, but I think we'll know in the early part of next year.

Kogan previously said he would resign if there was any political interference in the club's future, after Andy Burnham said he would be really concerned" if the club's Abu Dhabi owners had to sell up, prompting Downing Street to clarify his position. He told the BBC: "The Prime Minister is entirely entitled to make his own observations on anything.

I am the chairman of the Independent Football Regulator and independence absolutely runs through everything we're doing. And no politician has tried to influence and would try to influence anything we do on that.

The Premier League initially brought 115 charges against City for alleged breaches of its financial rules. The case led to a 42-day hearing involving 7,000 pages of witness evidence following an eight-year investigation.

Of the 115 charges, the independent commission upheld 114. The commission found City had breached major financial rules, including through sponsorship arrangements it described as part of a disguised funding scheme".

It repeatedly described sponsorship arrangements as "sham" and found that the club had inflated revenue and concealed expenses. City confirmed on October 1 that they had lodged an appeal, saying their "firm position is that, on multiple grounds, the opinion contains clear material errors of law, principle and fact and is unsafe".