Manchester United v Manchester City - Premier League 2026/27
Manchester City could be kicked out of the Premier League (Image: Getty)
Manchester City should be dumped into the National League if they are expelled from the Premier League. That's the verdict of Express Sport readers after we put it to a poll. City are waiting to learn the punishment they face after being found guilty of the majority of financial rule breaches.
An independent panel ruled that City were guilty on 114 of the 115 charges levelled at them by the Premier League. It has been over 1,300 days since City were first charged and over two years since a hearing began. But the process is far from over. City are expected to appeal the verdict as their rivals wait to learn what sanctions will be brought to them and consider legal action of their own.
The Premier League have stayed silent, refusing to comment on the guilty verdict. City insisted in a statement that the "process remains ongoing" while chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak remains confident the club can be exonerated.
Yet should they fail in their appeal, and be forced to "take their medicine" to borrow Roy Keane's phrase, the majority of rival supporters want City punished as strongly as possible.
Possible sanctions include being booted out of the Premier League. There have been whispers that the English Football League could, in tandem, refuse to accept City in, too, which would force them to go into non-league.
And 44 per cent of the over 4,700 readers to vote in our poll believe Enzo Maresca's men should be booted into the National League. Quite how likely that is is another matter entirely, but another 23 per cent believe City should drop down to League Two if they are accepted by the EFL.
Just 17 per cent of voters think a drop down to the second tier, the Championship, would be a fitting punishment. And 16 per cent voted that City should go into League One.
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Manchester City are not expected to lose their past titles (Image: Getty)
With that in mind, BBC Sport say the eight-time English champions are unlikely to lose any of their past trophies as there is little appetite from the league or its clubs to pursue such action.
City won eight major honours between 2009 and 2018, the timeframe they are being judged upon. But the trophies won in that period under Roberto Mancini, Manuel Pellegrini and Pep Guardiola are set to remain on the City honour roll.
If City are not stripped of trophies or removed from the Premier League, alternative sanctions include fines, a transfer ban and points deductions. But the club continue to deny wrongdoing.
And Al Mubarak said on Saturday: "Here's what I said to my family: The Premier League process still has a long way to run, and our confidence and intent in proving the club's innocence is just as strong as when this began.
"There are so many things that I would like to be able to share with you to help you understand why we feel so confident in our position. But the strict confidentiality of the legal process and our determination to respect it means I cannot do that at the moment.
"Even this letter underwent several legal checks to make sure it complies."