Punishments Man City could face following 114-charge verdict

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Manchester City could face a range of sanctions after an independent commission found the club guilty of 114 of the 115 financial-rule charges brought against them, The Athletic reports on Friday.

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The sanctions have yet to be determined, while City are expected to appeal the verdict.

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The verdict relates to alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations between 2009 and 2018.

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The Premier League charged City in February 2023 with 115 alleged breaches covering the 2009/10 to 2017/18 seasons, as well as alleged failures to co-operate with its investigation between December 2018 and February 2023.

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The 115 charges comprised 54 relating to financial information, 14 concerning player and manager payments, five involving UEFA regulations including Financial Fair Play rules, seven concerning Premier League Profitability and Sustainability Rules and 35 relating to alleged failures to co-operate with the investigation.

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The Premier League’s disciplinary rules, set out in Section W of its Handbook, set out a range of sanctions that an independent commission can impose.

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Here are the possible punishments City could face:

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Points deduction

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One of the most significant possible sanctions is a deduction of points from Manchester City.

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The Premier League has previously imposed points deductions for financial-rule breaches. Everton, for example, had a 10-point deduction reduced to six following an appeal over a breach of the league’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules.

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There is no publicly established points tariff for the Manchester City case, meaning the eventual deduction, if imposed, would depend on the commission’s assessment of the breaches and any mitigating factors.

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The rules also allow a commission to deduct points already scored or to be scored, meaning the punishment does not necessarily have to be limited to a future season.

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Fine

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The commission can also impose an unlimited fine, meaning there is no fixed maximum amount. There is no indication yet of what financial penalty City could face.

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Suspension from matches

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Another available sanction is suspension from playing Premier League matches.

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Under the league’s disciplinary framework, an independent commission can suspend a club from playing league matches for a period it considers appropriate.

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Such a sanction would have a direct sporting impact on City, although there has been no indication that the commission intends to impose it.

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Player-registration restrictions

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The disciplinary framework also allows for the cancellation or refusal of a player’s registration in certain circumstances.

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The possibility of restrictions on player registrations has been identified among the sanctions available to an independent commission, although there is no indication that such a punishment will be imposed on City.

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Compensation

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The commission can also order City to pay compensation, with the rules placing no stated monetary limit on such an award.

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Stripping of titles

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One of the biggest questions is whether Manchester City could lose Premier League titles won during the period covered by the charges.

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Title stripping is not expressly listed among the commission’s named sanctions. However, the Premier League’s disciplinary rules give the commission broad discretion to impose a combination of penalties or “such other penalty as it shall think fit”.

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The possibility of historical titles being affected also arises from the rules allowing points already scored to be deducted.

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City won three Premier League titles during the period covered by the charges — 2011/12, 2013/14 and 2017/18. The Premier League has no precedent for stripping a club of a title over financial-rule breaches, however, so whether such a sanction could ultimately be imposed remains uncertain.

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There is, however, a European example of retrospective title stripping: Juventus were stripped of two Serie A titles as part of the punishment for the 2006 Calciopoli scandal, a case involving match-fixing and refereeing corruption rather than financial-rule breaches.

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Expulsion from the Premier League

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The most severe sanction available, and one with no domestic precedent for a financial case of this nature. The rules allow the independent commission to recommend that the league expel a club from its membership. City themselves have been here before at European level: UEFA banned them from the Champions League for two seasons in February 2020 over Financial Fair Play breaches, only for the Court of Arbitration for Sport to overturn the ban on appeal that July, leaving City with a reduced fine instead.

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What happens next?

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The guilty verdict does not immediately mean that Manchester City will be deducted points or expelled from the Premier League.

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The commission still has to determine the appropriate sanctions. City can then challenge the decision through the Premier League’s appeal process.

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The league’s disciplinary process allows a party to challenge a commission decision through an Appeal Board, which has powers to allow or dismiss an appeal or vary the commission’s order.

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