Champions call on Blackstone heavyweight to tackle UEFA ban
Manchester City Football Club have reportedly called on the services of Lord Pannick QC to help overturn their Champions League ban.
The Blackstone Chambers silk will join the Premier side’s formidable legal team for the appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against their two-year UEFA ban from the Champions League and £25 million fine, the Mirror reports.
UEFA dished out the hefty punishment earlier this month after it found City had seriously misled European football’s governing body and broken financial fair play rules. The club’s chief executive, Ferran Soriano, maintains that allegations of financial wrongdoing are baseless.
Pannick, a constitutional law expert, famously represented Gina Miller both when she forced parliament to legislate before Article 50 could be invoked and when she challenged Boris Johnson’s plans to prorogue parliament in the run-up to Brexit.
The report goes on to claim it will cost the football club “around £20,000-a-day” to retain Pannick’s services — which puts the Oxford-educated barrister in the same £100,000-a-week earings bracket as City stars Kyle Walker and John Stones.
The club’s legal line is also said to include lawyers from magic circle player Freshfields, international law firm Pinsent Masons and top London set Monckton Chambers.
