Do Manchester City have any grounds to win their appeal?

Manchester City face "substantial hurdles" to overcome if they are to have any chance of winning their appeal after being found guilty of breaking the Premier League's financial rules, a leading lawyer has told BBC Sport. BBC Sport's Dale Johnson, Dan Roan, Laura Scott and Sami Mokbel assess Manchester City's position Manchester City face "substantial hurdles" if they are to have any chance of winning their appeal after being found guilty of breaking the Premier League's financial rules, a leading lawyer has told BBC Sport. City have been found guilty of all charges related to breaches of the Premier League's financial rules between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons, and creating "sham contracts" to inflate sponsorship deals by £830m.

The club have said they are "innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League" and they have "irrefutable evidence" the ruling "contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe". In their appeal, City will argue the payments were made by the United Arab Emirates government as a shareholder of the sponsors, while there are inconsistencies in the Commission's judgement. Therefore, City say the sponsorship amounts were legitimate and not topped up by the owners. James Severn, Member of the London Solicitor Litigation Association (LSLA) and Partner at Penningtons Manches Cooper, told BBC Sport the appeal is "not