Man City won seven major trophies between 2009 and 2018, including three Premier League titles (Photo: Getty)
Manchester City could face a raft of heavy sanctions after being found guilty on almost all of the charges relating to breaking the Premier League’s financial rules.
City were initially charged in February 2023 with breaking financial regulations from 2009 to 2018, during which time they won three Premier League titles.
A City spokesperson insists that the ‘process remains ongoing’, though the club are expected to appeal the verdict.
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The Premier League has not decided on what punishment the Citizens will receive and there are no set sanctions for financial breaches, meaning there are a number of different ways they could be punished:
Points deduction
There is recent precedent for City to be slapped with an immediate points deduction.
In 2023, Everton were deducted 10 points, later reduced to six after appeal, after breaking profit and sustainability rules (PSR).
Man City’s 115 charges in full
Man City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak with Pep Guardiola in 2024 (Reuters)
Failure to provide accurate and up-to-date financial information (2009-2018) – 54 charges
Failure to provide accurate financial reports for player and manager compensation (2009-2018) – 14 charges
Failure to comply with UEFA’s regulations, including Financial Fair Play Regulations – 5 charges
Breaching Premier League Profitability and Sustainability regulations (2015-2018) – 7 charges
Failure to co-operate with Premier League investigations (2018-2023) – 35 charges
The following year, the Toffees were again docked two points for a second breach, while Nottingham Forest were deducted four points.
Each punishment was for a single breach of the rules however, and with City being found guilty of 114 breaches, that could mean an astronomical points deduction or perhaps…
Will Man City be relegated from the Premier League?
Given the number of charges they have been found guilty of, many have speculated that Man City could be facing expulsion from the Premier League.
The Citizens last played outside England’s top-flight in 2002.
Enzo Maresca replaced Pep Guardiola as Man City manager last summer (Photo: Getty)
Pep Guardiola, who left the City dugout over the summer, said previously that he would remain at the Etihad even if the club were demoted into ‘League One’.
We may find out soon enough whether his successor Enzo Maresca, or star players like Erling Haaland, feel the same way.
Will Man City lose their Premier League titles?
Man City have won the Premier League eight times, three of which during the time-period that has been investigated.
Should they be stripped of those titles, it could see the runner-up in those seasons retrospectively crowned champions, namely Manchester United for 2011/12 and 2017/18, and Liverpool for 2013/14.
Man Utd finished runner-up to Man City in 2012 and 2018 (Photo: Getty)
Alternatively, the Premier League may chose to simply not have a champion for these seasons, like Serie A did when Juventus were stripped of their 2005 title for their part in the Calciopoli scandal.
City also won one FA Cup and three League Cups during the aforementioned time-period, beating Stoke City, Sunderland, Liverpool and Arsenal in those finals.
Fines and reprimands
Man City have previously been fined twice by UEFA for breaching their financial rules.
In 2014, European football’s governing body slapped the English club with a £49million conditional fine, as well as a transfer cap, for a Financial Fair Play (FFP) breach.
In 2020, UEFA banned City from competing in Europe for two seasons and fined them £25m for ‘overstating its sponsorship revenue in its accounts’.
City immediately submitted an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and their two-year ban was overturned, while the fine was reduced to just £8.9m.
City to avoid most ‘extreme’ sanctions
Football finance expert and Senior Lecturer in Sport Business Management at Sheffield Hallam University, Dr Dan Plumley believes Manchester City may avoid the most ‘extreme’ sanctions:
‘Now that City have been found guilty, all of those things would potentially be on the table as sanctions, and the PL could push for any or a combination of.
‘It is really difficult to predict what any outcome could be, as there is no precedent.
‘We will always be in the realms of speculation until we know, but if I were to speculate, I would suggest that a points deduction and fine would be most likely, with relegation and title stripping being the extreme, but unlikely, scenarios.’
