"I do sympathise with a lot of fans here," Yasin Patel, a barrister specialising in sports law, told BBC Radio 5 Live when discussing the Premier League's verdict on the Manchester City charges. "But there are rules saying owners shouldn't do that, and if they had done that then they should've been open about it," he added when asked whether the club were simply spending their own money when they breached the Premier League's financial rules.