A new report has revealed one punishment “not going to happen” if Manchester City are found guilty of breaching Financial Fair Play rules.
Man City are expected to learn the verdict of their FFP case against the Premier League in the coming weeks as recent reports claim a decision is due in March.
The Premier League side were referred to an independent commission by the Premier League at the start of 2023. This followed a four-year probe into their conduct between 2009 and 2018, which resulted in over 100 charges.
Man City have insisted on their innocence and fought back against the Premier League, winning the separate Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules case.
It remains to be seen how/if the APT verdict will impact the FFP situation, but this case could drag on for a few more months with an appeal likely with any outcome.
If found guilty, Man City face a huge fine, points deduction, transfer ban and/or expulsion from the Premier League.
It has also been suggested that they could be stripped of their Premier League titles, but this potential punishment has been deemed unlikely.
A detailed report from Sky News on Man City’s FFP situation has quotes from Matt Hughes (sports journalist at FootBiz), Simon Leaf ( sports lawyer at Mishcon de Reya) and Martin Lipton (chief sports reporter at The Sun).
Regarding the possibility of Man City being stripped of their titles, Hughes claimed: “There seems to be no appetite to take retrospective punishment.”
Leaf added: “I suspect there will be certain clubs looking at this and saying, actually we would have been entitled to payments for qualifying for Champions League… or even bonuses from sponsors from finishing in a different position.”
Liptin finished by saying: “If you were to strip titles, the single most iconic moment in the history of the Premier League – Sergio Aguero’s 94th minute goal against QPR to win the league – didn’t happen.
“You can’t rewrite history to that extent. [It’s just] not going to happen”.
The journalists also debated the potential impact of a win for Man City. Lipton asked: “If City were to be cleared of absolutely everything, then the next question will be – what happens to the Premier League leadership?
He subsequently described the case as a “brutal civil war”, but should City win, they’ll seek “the complete decapitation of the entire leadership”.