Manchester City found guilty by Premier League commission; club to appeal by Friday
Manchester City have been found guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules by an independent commission appointed by the Premier League on Monday, and the club says it will appeal with a deadline to file set for Friday.
The charges were first brought by the Premier League in 2023 and Manchester City continue to deny wrongdoing, leaving the legal process unresolved while the club pursues an appeal. Previous cases involving Everton and Nottingham Forest suggest appeals can be heard and decided before sanctions are announced, though the commission itself acknowledged delays, writing: "It has taken us much longer than we would have wished, and much longer than we had anticipated would be the case when the hearing concluded, to produce our decision. That is regrettable." The Premier League has said it wants the process "concluded as soon as possible".
An appeal will be heard by a new three-person commission and the Premier League regulations include a timetable that an appeal should conclude within 12 weeks of being filed with a decision made within 30 days of its end, though the exact length of the procedure remains unclear. City cannot take a further appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport but could challenge the impartiality of the process at the High Court, and the league has indicated it may expedite procedures where necessary to meet key deadlines such as the end of a season.
Sporting ramifications are immediate: Erling Haaland's goals have taken Manchester City to the top of the Premier League with a maximum 15 points from their opening five matches, but uncertainty over potential sanctions casts doubt on whether that position will stand uncontested for the season. If sanctions are delayed past the end of the campaign, the commission noted it could open the door to legal challenges from clubs who finish below City, are relegated, or were eliminated by them in domestic cups. Two principal outcomes under consideration are a heavy points deduction that could see City finish in the bottom three and be relegated, or expulsion from the Premier League — the latter requiring a vote in favour by 15 rival clubs.
Expulsion would throw the club's future into regulatory uncertainty because re-entry to the league system would need approval from the Football Association and acceptance is not automatic from the English Football League or National League. The EFL's 72 clubs would have to vote on any application to join their competitions, a scenario that could result in Manchester City starting again in League Two or lower rather than the Championship. The commission's report and BBC Sport commentary stressed the large sporting and financial difference between a one-season drop to the Championship and beginning lower in the pyramid.
The report referenced historical precedent in Italy when Juventus were relegated from Serie A to Serie B in 2006 after being found guilty of match-fixing; Juventus retained players including Gianluigi Buffon, Pavel Nedved and David Trezeguet while others such as Fabio Cannavaro, Patrick Vieira and Gianluca Zambrotta left, and Buffon subsequently captained the club back to a title. The article also noted that if City faced only a single season outside the Premier League, players on long, lucrative contracts would be more likely to remain and the economic hit from losing top-flight TV income would be reduced.
The possibility of criminal investigations was raised alongside football sanctions: "The Fraud Act 2006 states that dishonestly making a false representation with the intention of making a gain or avoiding a loss can lead to individuals being imprisoned for 10 years and facing an unlimited fine, if charges are brought and proven." Lord Cruddas said: "Surely the Man City findings are now a police matter," and added: "If accounts have been falsified and auditors have been misled then it is potentially a criminal matter. The auditors will call in the police, directors are personally liable for any fraud of a UK company even if it is foreign-owned." The bodies that can investigate potential financial crimes in the UK include regional police forces, the National Crime Agency, HMRC and the Serious Fraud Office; BBC Sport contacted those organisations and was given no indication that any investigation has begun, though some do not routinely confirm inquiries owing to confidentiality. Former Manchester City chairman David Bernstein said: "This is very serious and I wonder whether some of these issues might need to be referred to authorities outside of the league," and added: "My immediate thoughts are - can the board of directors continue and should the people involved be suspended immediately?" Football finance expert Kieran Maguire commented: "HMRC might consider it but there is not a lot for them to go on. There is certainly no corporation tax to recover. Football clubs lose money and City would have lost more money had it not been for the activities it undertook."
Regulatory routes beyond the Premier League could also be relevant: the Independent Football Regulator, established in 2025 to protect the heritage of English football and ensure financial soundness, awards licences to all 116 clubs across the top five tiers and applies an enhanced suitability framework for owners, directors and senior executives; the Football Governance Act 2025 gives the IFR power to suspend or revoke licences as a last resort. Government intervention has precedent — the UK government forced Roman Abramovich to sell Chelsea in 2022 after freezing his assets following Russia's invasion of Ukraine — but Manchester City's owners are not currently subject to government action and the formal finding so far is that the club broke football financial rules. The article also notes that relations between the UK and the UAE have weakened "to a degree in recent years." Additionally, reporting cited figures that have been used to describe an "asterisk era": £1.2bn spent on transfers with £830m alleged to have been inflated in sponsorships.
Manchester City's immediate and confirmed next step is to file an appeal by Friday; that appeal will be considered by a new three-person commission and, based on past precedents mentioned in the report, the expectation is that any determination on sanctions will be sought before punishments are imposed, although the commission acknowledged no timetable can be guaranteed.
