Could Man City be stripped of titles? Or have points deducted? Experts give their opinions

Sky News

27-02-2025

In the next month or so, we're expecting an independent commission to announce whether Manchester City will face any punishment over more than a hundred counts of alleged financial rule breaches.
The club are facing around 115 charges laid by the Premier League which have been the subject to a hearing which has been held in private.
Ahead of the verdicts, Sky News' sports correspondent Rob Harris spoke with some of the world's top football finance experts at the Financial Times' Business of Football Summit 2025 to hear what they think will happen next, and to answer questions from readers.
But before we get to their thoughts, let's look at the background of the case.
What is the nature of the charges?
The greatest proportion of the charges relate to rules that require clubs to provide accurate financial information, and which City are alleged to have breached.
They include details concerning the accuracy of information about sponsorship deals and player and manager payment.
There are also allegations of breaches of rules requiring clubs to comply with UEFA Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations - and the Premier League's own profit and sustainability rules (PSR).
They are also accused of failing to cooperate with the league's investigation.
In all, there are charges relating to every season between 2009-10 and 2022-23. During that period, City won the Premier League title seven times, the FA Cup on three occasions, six League Cups and a Champions League.
City have strongly denied the allegations and said they welcomed the opportunity for an independent commission "to impartially consider the comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of our position".
What's next?
Since the charges were announced, hearings have been held in private, during which lawyers from the Premier League and Manchester City have presented evidence and arguments on the case.
A panel of retired senior judges sits on an independent commission which will rule on the case very soon.
They could find City guilty on all of the charges, guilty of some of them, or clear the club of any wrongdoing.
Your questions
While we wait for the verdict, readers posed their questions to experts.
At the Financial Times' Business of Football Summit 2025, Rob Harris spoke to:
Matt Hughes, sports journalist at FootBiz
Simon Leaf, sports lawyer at Mishcon de Reya
Martin Lipton, chief sports reporter at The Sun
'We've never seen anything like it'
Matt Hughes said the case is the clearest example of how football can change radically in just a few years.
"Five, ten years ago, I couldn't have imagined journalists and football fans arguing over arcane matters of competition law and issues such as associated party transactions - it feels like the last ten years of the Premier League has all crystallised in this one case," he said.
That was echoed by Simon Leaf, who said the case was "truly unprecedented in the history of football and financial regulation in football", before adding that such regulation is only 10 or 15 years old itself.
"We've never quite seen anything like it," he said.
And with a case of that size comes the challenge of proving it.
Martin Lipton said it's a "huge ask" for the Premier League to prove any of the charges, as they'd have to show beyond any doubt that City knowingly "defrauded football".
Could only a few guilty verdicts lead to a points deduction?
As we mentioned above, it's not yet clear whether the independent commission will find City guilty on all charges - but what if they were found to have broken a few rules?
Could we expect a heavy fine or points deduction for each charge broken?
Our experts explained that the first problem is that we're effectively in the dark until the verdict is released in full.
"We still don't know exactly how many charges [City] are facing," Hughes said, noting that figures have been floating around the 115, 129 or even 130 mark, but nothing is certain yet.
"Everything's been done confidentially," Lipton said, adding that we will only get an understanding of what they've actually been charged with with the verdicts.
Others may look to precedent.
Last season, Everton were twice docked points for breaching the Premier League's PSR.
Nottingham Forest were also deducted four points during the last campaign.
But, as the experts explained, these were for more straightforward charges of overspending - something fairly straightforward to prove (additionally, this, alongside the number of charges, is one of the main reasons the case has taken so long to reach a conclusion).
Many of City's charges relate to overinflated sponsorship deals - which is entirely more subjective and therefore much more difficult to prove.
For instance, a sponsorship deal involving a global superclub like Manchester United would have a vastly different value to one with a newly promoted side like Southampton.
"What it comes down to is trying to assess the market value of these deals... and it's very hard to know what the value should be from club to club," Leaf said.
"Equally, the rights are not the same [in every deal] - some include hospitality access for sponsors," he added.
"One of the deals we did a few years ago involved a country's national ballet being able to appear at the [club's] stadium - how do you put a [market] value on something like that?"
Could City have Premier League titles stripped from them?
"There seems to be no appetite to take retrospective punishment," said Hughes when asked this question.
But Leaf said it was still too early to say.
"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," he said, suggesting this would give the commission something else to think about when making its decisions.
But Lipton said he'd be very surprised if City were to be stripped of titles, given that that would undermine the Premier League's history.
"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," he said.
" You can't rewrite history to that extent," he said, adding title stripping is just "not going to happen".
What if City are cleared?
If City's position is vindicated, it is likely to lead to serious questions about the Premier League's ability to effectively govern its clubs and enforce financial regulations.
This is at a time when football is on course to become subject to wider independent regulation, something which is widely supported by supporter groups.
Other clubs who have faced punishment in the past will also want to pick through the details of the verdict and may have further questions about how the rules are being applied.
But it also opens the door for City to go for the jugular, our experts said.
"If City were to be cleared of absolutely everything, then the next question will be - what happens to the Premier League leadership?" Lipton asked.
He described the case as nothing more than a "brutal civil war" and should City win it, they'll seek "the complete decapitation of the entire leadership".
What about an appeal?
Either side can appeal against any ruling.
"We're hoping to get an initial judgment next month," Hughes said, adding the issue as a whole won't be resolved for a long time, whatever the verdict is.
Leaf noted that it's highly unlikely there will be a finding that both sides are happy with, making the possibility of a lengthy appeals process high.
"If there's an appeal, there's a separate commission [that presides over it]," Lipton said, suggesting that we'd effectively be starting again.