With large amounts of evidence still to be sifted through, a decision over the taxman's challenge to the Football Creditor rules is not expected for three months.
After five days of hearings at the High Court, where HMRC's spokesman said they were 'satisfied that the whole issue of the football creditors' rule had been aired in court', the judge must now decide whether the rule is unlawful or is, as the Football League claim, designed to protect the integrity of the competition.
The judge, Mr Justice David Richards, has already dismissed a claim by the taxman that the rule is discriminatory - as it doesn't treat all football clubs the same across Europe - as the case is already 'complex enough'. The court was told that the taxman had issued proceedings 25 times against clubs in the past two years, with several serial offenders getting more than one action.
In defence the FL's council, Mark Phillips QC, said that club's selling players needed guarantees that they would be paid, and that the rule prevented clubs from reneging on deals and moving up the League ladder with players they have not paid for.