Expert Claims “There’s A Very High Chance” That Man City Will Receive Their Punishment Within Months
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Football finance expert Kieran Maguire claims “there’s a very high chance” that Man City will learn their fate before the end of the season.
The Premier League publicly confirmed on Tuesday that the Cityzens have been found guilty of breaching Financial Fair Play rules, but the club are set to appeal the decision, with the verdict likely to take several months. However, Maguire still thinks that the process will be concluded prior to the conclusion of the 2026/27 campaign:
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“I think there’s a very high chance it will be resolved because if it isn’t, we end up with a situation like that of Burnley and Everton where a club could be relegated, Manchester City are not given a deduction this season, and it’s given next season instead and the club which finishes 18th could say had the deduction been applied sooner we would not have been relegated, so that adds to the complication.”
“Looking at the Premier League’s press release, it does seem it is keen for this to be resolved as quickly as possible. If you take at the length of time it took in respect of Forest and Everton, once they had heard the evidence, actually applying the tariff was the quick part of the equation. It is listening to the evidence which is the torturous period we have had up to now.”
How does the appeal process work?
It is believed that Man City must submit their appeal by Friday 2nd October, and an Independent Commission will then be set up to deliberate the case.
Premier League rivals are said to have pointed to new regulations that were put in place in June, which outline that a verdict should be handed down no later than 12 weeks after filing the appeal.
It remains to be seen whether that is practical, considering the complicated nature of the financial breaches.
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What sort of punishment could Man City receive?
There have been plenty of pundits calling for the club’s expulsion from the Premier League, but a report that cites sources close to Premier League teams says that is highly unlikely.
An extremely high fine, with some sort of points deduction, is the more probable result, but the outcome is not easy to predict.