Manchester City’s on-field woes could be dwarfed by legal defeat

LONDON – Manchester City’s well-chronicled troubles on the field this season could pale into insignificance in the coming weeks, if an independent commission rules that the club have breached multiple financial regulations.

City’s unexpected meltdown on the pitch has all but knocked Pep Guardiola’s side out of contention for a fifth successive English Premier League title, and they are also in danger of exiting the Champions League at the group stage.

But a much larger and darker cloud has stationed itself over the Abu Dhabi-owned club that in the last decade have amassed a vast haul of silverware and became the dominant force in English football.

Three judges appointed by the independent chair of the Premier League Judicial Panel spent more than two months listening to evidence and submissions in relation to the 115 charges brought against City in 2023.

City have always denied any wrongdoing and all eyes will now be on the verdict, which is expected soon. If the club are found guilty of the most serious charges against them, the severity of the punishments will also be closely watched.

While Everton and Nottingham Forest both fell foul of the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability (PSR) rules last season and were duly docked points, the allegations against City are in a different league – both in terms of their seriousness and duration.

The multitude of charges run from 2009 to 2018, but arguably the most damaging allegation is that every season from 2009-10 to 2017-18, the club failed to provide accurate financial information to give a “true and fair view” of revenues, including sponsorships, and operating costs.

City have denied the allegations and employed a crack team of lawyers to fight their case.

“Has money come in from the owners, which they pretend to be from the sponsors? If that is the case, then that is fraud. That is about as serious as it gets,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire told Sky Sports’ The Overlap.

If City are found guilty of some or all of the charges against them, the punishments could range from a massive fine and huge deduction of points to titles being stripped or even expulsion from the Premier League.

While being relegated or ejected from the league is perhaps the least likely outcome, City could effectively be relegated if they were hit with an unprecedented deduction that some reports speculate could be more than 60 points.

“If they are found guilty, I think the first point there is nobody should be really using Everton and Forest as a benchmark, certainly if we talk about points deductions as a potential punishment,” said Dan Plumley, a football finance expert at Sheffield Hallam University.

“They were relatively straightforward breaches of PSR within that three-year window and were dealt with in line with those circumstances, so I think trying to kind of multiply points deductions out for this one is completely futile.”

Plumley thinks it is unlikely City would be stripped of any Premier League titles they won during the span of the allegations against them, and says the potential for the saga to rumble on through an appeals process and thereby throw the end of the season into chaos is worrying.

“It’s within the Premier League’s discretion as to whether they go down that route, my take on that is I think it’s always seemed unlikely,” he said. “To go back and retrospectively unpick that.

“There are lots of other factors you need to consider and it’s not as simple as giving it to the next-placed team, it would throw up a whole range of permutations.”

The Premier League is regarded as one of the best-run and most successful competitions in world sport and City, in many respects since Guardiola instilled his magical brand of football, have been a benchmark for excellence.

The most pessimistic City fans will console themselves with Guardiola’s vow to stay, whatever fate befalls the club. 

Owner Sheikh Mansour and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak have bathed in glory for a decade, but where a guilty verdict and accompanying punishment would leave City’s hierarchy is another question entirely. REUTERS