Manchester City players could be entitled to rip up their contracts if the club's guilty verdict for financial breaches is upheld after an appeal, according to barrister Paul Gilroy KC. The explanation follows the Premier League announcing that City had been found guilty of all but one of the 115 charges against them.
City maintain their innocence and deny the charges, and are expected to exercise their right to appeal, with the deadline set for Friday. As part of the announcement, the Premier League listed four areas to explain why City had been found guilty by the independent commission, including City arranging 'sham' contracts with commercial partners.
Players' contract options explained
Gilroy appeared on the latest episode of Stick to Football alongside Gary Neville, Ian Wright, Jamie Carragher, Roy Keane and Jill Scott. Wright put it to Gilroy how the ongoing case might impact players currently in City's squad, including the likes of Erling Haaland, Enzo Fernandez and Elliot Anderson.
Wright asked: "Just talking about the individual players who don't know what's going on [in the boardroom], does he have a case?" Gilroy responded: "Definitely, yes, good question, that, on the players' perspective. Every contract of employment, whether it's a footballer or someone who works in a shop, has got an implied term in it. In other words, it's not written down. And the implied term we're talking about here is the term of trust and confidence."
"So if I work for you, you and I must have sufficient trust and confidence in each other to enable that relationship to work. If you don't trust me, or I don't trust you, or if you call me a liar and a thief on Tuesday, I can't work for you on a Wednesday - trust and confidence."
Potential impact on squad
Gilroy added: "Now, a player could say 'You have breached the implied term of trust and confidence. You are my employer, you have acted in breach of that term, and that entitles me to say I'm ripping up my contract and I'm walking out.' That is a possibility; I've seen commentators saying unlikely, but it depends on so many things. What's the club going to say to the players? How do they sort it out financially? Etc, etc. But arguably, it's certainly a possibility."
Carragher then jokingly asked: "So Liverpool could sign Haaland for free next week?" Gilroy answered: "Yeah, why not?" Wright ended the discussion by jokingly adding: "He might want to come to Arsenal, just because of his mates there..."
