The complexity of Manchester City’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) case could delay the final outcome by more than year.That is according to City CEO Ferran Soriano, who told a board meeting of European football clubs in Copenhagen that the club’s legal case with the Premier League could take years.City fans will fear their club could plummet down the divisionsGettyCity have been found guilty of almost all of the charges brought against them by the Premier League.It comes over three-and-a-half years after they were first charged with 115 alleged breaches of FFP rules in February 2023.The offences occurred during a period which spanned from 2009 to 2018.A hearing was subsequently held between September and December 2024 by an independent commission.The news then broke on Friday that City had been found guilty on the vast majority of the charges.Whilst they are expected to appeal against the verdict, talkSPORT understands Premier League clubs past and present are considering taking collective legal action.At present, no sanctions have been handed out in response to the independent commission’s verdict.talkSPORT understands Soriano voluntarily brought up the case but did not admit guilt or reference any verdict. Instead, he told a room a significant amount of time will be needed to reach a resolution, while also making it clear City intend to fight.Man City appeal timeframeMeanwhile, legal journalist Christian Smith admitted that whilst it is difficult to predict when punishments could be dished out, they may not be finalised until the end of next year.The complexity of the case involving City and the Premier League will delay the appeals process, Smith admitsShutterstock EditorialWhen asked what the timescale on an appeal decision and final punishment looks like, Smith said on talkSPORT: “I hate to give you an annoying answer, but we just don’t know and the reason for that is two things.“First of all, this is as we all know very well now a confidential process, so it’s pretty hard to know exactly what’s going on in the background.“A lot of these things happen by each side will make an argument before the judge in terms of how they think it should proceed and the judges will make a decision of how they think it should proceed from here.“So we still don’t really know, for example, have they had a sanction hearing yet? Are they going to do an appeal before a sanction hearing or will they do the appeal with the sanction hearing afterwards? And then what happens from there.“The thing with these things is you’ve got some of the top lawyers in the country involved in this case. They have very busy schedules and you need to meet up all of the schedules of them and also of the judges. That can sometimes take weeks, more likely months.”City case comparedHe continued: “I would be surprised if it lasts kind of towards the end of next year, but if it gets done within this season, that would also be a pretty quick turnaround because we’re not talking about a simple ‘we’ve had a judgement, we’re going straight to an appeal.’City are expected to appeal after they were found guilty on almost all of the charges against themShutterstock Editorial“There still has to be the issue of sanctions. Then there has to be the appeal. Then they have to have a decent time to turn that appeal around.“Although in past cases like a Leicester City sort of thing I think they’ve done that pretty quickly. Those were really simple cases. This is as complex as it gets.“If you compare say to the Supreme Court or something like that, you’ll get a year sometimes that it takes for an appeal judgement to be handed down.“I don’t think that will be the case here. There will be a lot of pressure on the judges basically to turn this around as quickly as possible, but I wouldn’t expect it to be over anytime soon.”Leicester were handed a six-point deduction last season for breaching the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules between 2021 and 2024.Their punishment was issued in February, with the Foxes receiving the penalty immediately despite being in the Championship at the time.