Revealed: The four Premier League rivals who want compensation if Man City are found guilty of serious breaches of financial rules

Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham have taken legal action to ensure they can claim compensation should Manchester City be found guilty of committing serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules.

The group of four have formally registered their intent to seek damages from the four-in-a-row champions should they fail in their battle against the competition in an ongoing hearing.

City deny any wrongdoing and no verdict is expected from an independent commission into 115 charges until the new year. However, ahead of a deadline under the statute of limitations, which passed last week, the group acted to ensure they can sue should there be an opportunity to do so.

The move highlights the well-established battle lines which have been drawn across the Premier League. City have long suspected the quartet of being the ring-leaders in what they feel is a vendetta against them following their long era of success.

Indeed, at a recent meeting of clubs at Premier League headquarters City fans paid for a truck to carry a giant LED board, which featured the crests of the four involved along with the caption: ‘Richard’s Masters’, a clear dig at league chief executive Richard Masters.

Man City’s fans planted a giant screen outside the Premier League’s headquarters at a recent meeting of clubs

Manchester City have won each of the last four Premier League campaigns in succession

While all those involved declined to comment, they are understood to have acted now amid concerns that had they waited until a verdict next year their claims could have been found to have been out of time.

The allegations of the breaches surfaced on November 5, 2018 when German website Der Speigel published a series of hacked documents. Limitation laws include a six-year period for breaches of contract from the date they were reported, had they been committed in secret.

Should City be found guilty, rivals could claim for loss of income from revenue streams they missed out on as a result of their actions, such as Premier League place money and European qualification. Those sums could potentially run into the hundreds of millions.