Manchester City sanctions loom: Guilty on 114 major charges
Manchester City sanctions are the next step in the Premier League’s long-running financial case after an independent commission found the club guilty on 114 of the 115 charges it faced, the league confirmed Tuesday. City says it is innocent and will appeal.
The Premier League said the commission found City arranged “sham” commercial deals with a number of its sponsors to “artificially inflate” the club’s revenues and reduce its costs by “more than £900 million” from the 2009-10 season through 2017-18, according to ITV News. Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said the club “systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade,” CBS Sports reported.
What Manchester City sanctions are possible?
Manchester City sanctions will be set at a separate hearing before the independent commission, not by the league itself, and the Premier League has said it wants that process concluded “as quickly as possible,” according to Sky Sports. Under league rules, the commission can impose anything from a reprimand to expulsion, including unlimited fines, ITV News reported.
British media reports have listed fines, points deductions, relegation and the stripping of titles among the possible Manchester City sanctions, according to AS and CBS Sports. City won three Premier League titles, one FA Cup and three League Cups during the seasons covered by the charges, Sky Sports noted, which is why the possibility of stripped titles has drawn so much attention.
For comparison, Everton and Nottingham Forest were docked six and four points, respectively, for single breaches of the league’s profit and sustainability rules, Yahoo Sports noted.
How City has responded
City said in a statement that it is “innocent of the accusations” and that “a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists” to support its position. The club said the commission’s opinion contains “clear material errors” and vowed to be “relentless” in pursuing its appeal options, according to CBS Sports and Sky Sports.
City has until Friday, Oct. 2, to formally lodge an appeal, Sky Sports reported. Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has warned that the process could still take years to conclude, according to Yahoo Sports.
The scale of the breaches
The commission found that “by its conduct the club clearly intended to circumvent the Premier League rules,” ITV News reported. It ruled every financial charge proven and upheld all but one of the charges tied to City’s failure to cooperate with the league’s investigation, according to CBS Sports.
The league opened its investigation in 2018 and issued the charges in February 2023. The hearing lasted 42 days and ended in December 2024, per CBS Sports. Our earlier story has more on the commission’s guilty verdict.
City’s history with UEFA
This is not City’s first major regulatory fight. UEFA banned the club from its club competitions for two seasons in February 2020 over breaches of its financial rules, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned the ban that July, finding that most of the alleged breaches were either not established or time-barred.
The court also cut UEFA’s fine against the club from 30 million euros to 10 million euros, though it upheld the finding that City had failed to cooperate with UEFA’s investigation.
That earlier case looms over the coming decision on Manchester City sanctions. The Premier League’s process has taken far longer, and the commission’s findings cover a much broader period and a much larger number of alleged violations than UEFA’s case did.
What’s next for Manchester City
The sanctions hearing comes next, and any penalty could face its own appeal. The Premier League has not announced a date for a decision on Manchester City sanctions. For reaction from inside the club, read Pep Guardiola’s comments on the verdict, and follow more Premier League coverage.
Reporting from ITV News, Sky Sports, CBS Sports, AS and Yahoo Sports contributed to this story.