Richard Masters, the Premier League’s chief executive, completed his media rounds ahead of a new season this week and predictably found an old question thrown his way at every stop.Manchester City — and their rivals — continue to wait on the outcome of a protracted disciplinary case first brought by the Premier League in February 2023. A 12-week hearing for those 115 charges concluded as far back as December 2024, but that all-important verdict is still yet to come.“It will resolve itself,” Masters told journalists from the written press in London on Wednesday. “I literally can’t say a thing about it. I can’t talk about the substance of the case. I can’t talk about the timing of the case. Our rules are very clear about that.”The ongoing wait ensures a fourth Premier League season has now begun with the charges hanging over Manchester City, who have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. The Athletic revisits the biggest legal case in English football history.How long has this case been ongoing?You must go all the way back to March 2019 to find the root of this disciplinary action, a time when the Premier League confirmed they were investigating City following a series of allegations published by German newspaper Der Spiegel.Using documents provided by Football Leaks, the whistleblower platform set up by Portuguese computer hacker and activist Rui Pinto, it was claimed that City had manipulated the value of several commercial deals in order to circumvent UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules. Abu Dhabi-based companies, namely Etihad Airways and Etisalat, were alleged to have helped a club owned by Sheikh Mansour, de facto leader of the country, reach financial compliance. UEFA launched and completed its own disciplinary case against City, who successfully appealed a two-year ban from UEFA competitions through the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in 2020, but the Premier League eventually announced they were charging City with 115 breaches of financial regulations on February 6, 2023. Among the long list of charges that spanned nine years were several breaches of profit and sustainability Rules (PSR) and a failure to provide accurate financial information.City, who strenuously denied all charges, said at the time they would “look forward to this matter being put to rest once and for all”, but 1,293 days later they are yet to be granted that wish.A 12-week hearing held at the International Dispute Resolution Centre, in central London, in the final quarter of 2024 is still to have its decisions published by the three-person independent panel. Legal costs for both sides have already run deep into the millions.Why the delay? Masters was unable to answer that this week but accepted he has not foreseen the case stretching out this far. “It has taken longer than expected, and I do understand the frustrations,” he told Sky News.The Premier League’s rules outline the need for this whole process to remain confidential until the independent commission is ready to hand down its judgement, but few, Masters included, had envisaged such a wait.Richard Masters, Premier League chief executive, said he could not offer any updates on the case (Carl Recine/Getty Images)The complexities of the case, including the weight of evidence and charges, have made progress towards a resolution slow.Everton had two separate PSR breaches heard in the year that followed Manchester City being charged, while Nottingham Forest had their own case to answer in 2024. All three of those charges brought by the Premier League eventually resulted in points deductions.Arsenal’s chief executive Richard Garlick had his own take on it this week during an interview with the BBC: “Everybody — the league and the teams — would want the clarity around what’s going to happen next… And I just hope that there is a solution very quickly.”Has 2026 brought any other conclusions to legal cases in the Premier League?It has. Chelsea had their own historical charges to answer, relating to Roman Abramovich’s time as owner. UEFA had already hit Chelsea with a €10m fine (£8.6m, $11m at the time) in July 2023, before the Premier League reached a settlement agreement and fines of £10.75m in March of this year. A one-year transfer ban for first-team players, suspended for two years, was also given out.Chelsea, who self-reported the breaches under their current ownership and were said to have shown “exceptional cooperation throughout” in the verdict’s announcement, were found to have made secret payments totalling £47.5m to agents between 2011 and 2018, a period that saw them win the Premier League title twice.The Football Association then concluded their own investigations this summer, becoming the third governing body to bring a financial sanction.Another £10m fine and suspended transfer ban was handed down in relation to 74 breaches of FA rules relating to 44 transactions involving 32 players between July 2009 and August 2022. A six-point deduction, suspended until the end of the 2026-27 season, was also part of the initial sanction but that was successfully appealed by Chelsea in May.Chelsea’s disciplinary battles are over, but Manchester City’s, improbably, rumble on into another season.