With that in mind, it has been suggested that City would “accept” an initial ruling as they can immediately drag the matter back into court. An independent hearing into supposed monetary mismanagement in Manchester was completed late in 2024.
Over 12 months have passed without any further movement on that front, with the case in question relating to alleged rule breaches between 2009 and 2018. Various sanctions have been speculated on, ranging from point penalties to expulsion from the Premier League via transfer embargoes and big-money fines.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire told The Overlap recently of how the protracted saga could play out from here: “The Premier League cannot relegate Manchester City to League One or League Two because that is an EFL decision and Manchester City have not had any charges proven against them by the EFL. Therefore, it has to be a points deduction.
“If we take a look at precedence, we have had Everton and Nottingham Forest with six and four-point deductions for a single offence covering a three-year period. The accusations against Manchester City cover a nine-year period, so it is far bigger.
“The numbers involved we are not certain about but they are likely to be quite significant. I think you have to add a zero to what we’ve seen in terms of Forest and Everton, so somewhere between a 40 and 60-point deduction would be, on merit to be consistent with what we’ve seen with other decisions, would make a lot of logic.”