Manchester City have hired the lawyer who blocked Brexit on two occasions as they look to take on UEFA.
City were found guilty by UEFA's Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) of having falsely inflated sponsorship revenues when submitting their FFP compliance process.
In a statement, UEFA said the Premier League champions "overstated its sponsorship revenue in its accounts and in the break-even information submitted to UEFA between 2012 and 2016".
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The Premier League champions deny the allegations made, with the club's CEO Ferran Soriano stating that the claims are "simply not true".
And now the Blues have turned to QC David Pannick as they go about appealing the £25 million fine and two-year ban from UEFA competitions.
Featured in the Lawyer Hot 100, Lord Pannick was instrumental in helping Gina Miller come on top in her bid to prevent Brexit from happening.
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First he was successful in thwarting then Prime Minister Theresa May's efforts to make the UK leave the European Union without parliamentary consent in 2016, before then following it up in September by defeating Boris Johnson in the UK Supreme Court when it was ruled the current leader had given the Queen unlawful advice as he set out to prorogue parliament.
He has a track record of winning in the courtroom for City as well, having emerged victorious in a case that forced former manager Joe Royle to pay back £467,000 in compensation and legal costs in the Appeal Court following his sacking 19 years ago.
As per The Mirror, City are paying the 63-year old £20,000-a-day to overturn the punishment enforced on them and that figure, along with the fees paid to other firms such as Freshfields, Bruckhaus Deringer, Pinsent Masons and Monckton Chambers, will be worth it if City emerge victorious.
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It appears as though the next step for City will be to take the matter with the Court of Arbitration for sport.
Providing an update on what the club's next move will be, Soriano told the club's official website: "This is how the system works. We went to CAS mid-process because it was clear to us that we were not having a fair process and we were concerned.
"We were specifically concerned about the leaks, the constant leak of information. CAS said there was merit in our complaint, they said that the leaks were 'worrisome' and they said they would judge it when process has finished. The process has finished now, we are going to CAS again.
"We are looking for an early resolution obviously through a thorough process and a fair process so my best hope is that this will be finished before the beginning of the summer and until then for us, it is business as usual."
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Topics: Manchester City, Football News, Football, FFP, UEFA, Champions League