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Premier League clubs are seeking "reparations" for the nine-year period during which Manchester City violated the competition's financial regulations, along with further restrictions in upcoming seasons, according to a new report.
City were convicted by an independent commission on charges covering nearly a decade from 2009–10 through 2017–18. The club continues to strongly deny any wrongdoing, refusing to accept the ruling—going so far as to describe it as an "opinion"—and has already filed an appeal.
Should that process fail and the original ruling be upheld, rival clubs appear eager for penalties to be far-reaching, according to BBC Sport. That said, when the time arrives, the decision will rest solely with the original three-person panel that found the club guilty.
Not every club is pushing for City to be stripped of their titles, though that view is held by some. However, those clubs aren't necessarily looking to claim the honors for themselves—Manchester United and Liverpool finished as runners-up to City during the relevant league seasons. Instead, the primary aim would be to "take honors away," leaving them vacant. At least one club has warned that the "credibility of the Premier League would be lost" if City are permitted to retain their titles.
Another club has described it as "obtuse" if City are allowed to participate in the January transfer window, even while the process is still ongoing and no sanctions have been imposed. The deadline for the appeal verdict is Jan. 23, 2027, though City could continue to escalate the matter further if unsuccessful, indicating a resolution is far from imminent.
Retrospective Financial Reparations
Regarding retrospective punishment, one option that has been proposed is an adjustment to City's Premier League standings across the nine seasons in question through historic points deductions. By effectively applying a "tariff" to City's points total in each campaign, it would result in the final Premier League table being rewritten for each affected season.
This goes beyond potentially stripping titles, and could also serve as a mechanism to compensate other clubs who might have finished higher in the standings and would have been entitled to greater prize money had the financial misconduct not occurred.
This matters not only in seasons where City won the Premier League title. For instance, Manchester United were narrowly pushed down to fifth place and missed out on Champions League qualification in 2015–16 after finishing level on points with City but with a worse goal difference. The impact would be less significant for clubs near the bottom of the table, though it would naturally depend on the scale of each season's deduction.
Man City Premier League Finishes, Points Tallies During Financial Cheating
Season | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|
2009–10 | 5th | 67 |
2010–11 | 3rd | 71 |
2011–12 | 1st | 89 |
2012–13 | 2nd | 78 |
2013–14 | 1st | 86 |
2014–15 | 2nd | 79 |
2015–16 | 4th | 66 |
2016–17 | 3rd | 78 |
2017–18 | 1st | 100 |
Single-Season Points Deduction Insufficient
Sky Sports reports that "sympathy is in short supply" among rival clubs, who "do not expect City to be in the Premier League next season" if the appeal is unsuccessful.
The Premier League cannot directly relegate the club by one division—or more—because the EFL is an independent organization and is not obligated to accept them. A far harsher punishment would be expulsion from the Premier League and an application to enter a league much further down the English football pyramid. Such an outcome is typically associated with clubs that collapse financially, cease operations, and re-emerge as phoenix clubs under a similar name.
Relegation into the EFL could be achieved through a sufficiently severe points deduction, which represents the most straightforward way to ensure City face ongoing punishment in future seasons, beyond just historical consequences. However, as the BBC report notes, "at least four" Premier League clubs believe a single-season deduction would be "insufficient punishment given the severity."
Imposing anything beyond a one-off 60-point deduction would represent a monumental, record-setting sanction that would almost certainly send City down. Nevertheless, there is a widespread expectation that relegation under such circumstances would be followed by immediate promotion.