The most important element here is that City will already know if they’ve broken any rules. City won’t need charges, a panel or a big debate on Talksport to tell them this. They’ll already have known. Let’s not lose sight of City’s public response of irrefutable evidence and putting this shit to bed once and for all. In my opinion if City knew they’d been naughty they’d have coughed it, entered into a plea bargain type scenario and asked for proceedings to be conducted in private. There’s no way they’d have stood on and come out with the irrefutable line and dragged the club through a public mud slinging for years.
I’m extremely well versed in court cases having participated in and given evidence in, around 200 with my job. If I can hear the evidence and read the room, I’m 100% sure a collection of KCs can.
Every KC in that room will have formed a global view and probably a micro view re each charge as the hearing unfolded. You are right to say they cannot “know” what the outcome is going to be, but they will very well know which way the wind has blown and how the decision is very likely to go. These charges are not like a criminal trial where doubt can be introduced. These charges are binary. You either have breached a rule or you haven’t. There can’t be any “erm, well, I’m not sure, what do you think about it?” in play. You’ve either breached a rule or you haven’t.
Given this, the KCs can be as sure as they can be, in lieu of an official verdict.
City will have debriefed with their legal team and all business manoeuvres since then will have been based on the KCs and City’s top men’s hearing of the evidence and their reading of that room. In my opinion, City’s commercial activity since looks like a club with supreme confidence that nothing serious is coming their way. In fact, it just looks like business as usual.
My own view is that it cannot possibly have taken this long to provide the parties with the outcome. I know there are various schools of thought on both sides but for me, nah, I’m not having it.
I can’t explain the silence though. There must be something going on we don’t know about.