Premier League shows little appetite to strip Manchester City titles, independent panel still to decide
On 26 September 2026, BBC Sport reported that both the Premier League organisation and its member clubs have shown little appetite for stripping Manchester City of past trophies won during the period covered by the investigation into alleged rule breaches, though the threat of such action persists while an independent panel has yet to hold a "sanction hearing". That hearing means retrospective removal of honours cannot be ruled out, even as alternatives including points deductions, large fines or expulsion are thought more likely.
The case centres on 115 charges brought against Manchester City, of which the club has been found guilty of the majority, covering alleged breaches between 2009 and 2018; City won eight trophies during that span and captured the Premier League title three times in the period under scrutiny. City have denied wrongdoing and the Premier League's rulebook lists fines, points deductions and expulsion as possible penalties while also allowing a disciplinary commission to impose a penalty "as it shall think fit".
One contested option is the retrospective stripping or reallocation of titles; proponents say the scale of the alleged misrepresentation of revenue and costs created an unfair advantage, while opponents warn that removing honours would rewrite league history and raise complex practical and legal questions. The argument for reallocation raises parallel concerns about other clubs whose achievements in the 2010s have also been questioned, including Chelsea following findings of secret payments to agents between 2011 and 2018.
The alleged breaches focus on claims City inflated sponsorship income from connected companies and made other "off the books" payments to circumvent financial rules, and commentators note it is difficult to quantify precisely how those breaches may have affected on-field outcomes or which players might not have been signed if rules had been followed. The case also touches later conduct, with City accused of a failure to co-operate with Premier League investigations between December 2018 and February 2023; Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool finished runners-up to City by a single point in both 2019 and 2022, and the German coach joked he would host a party if those titles were reassigned.
There are precedents for retrospective stripping of honours in sport: Juventus were deprived of Serie A titles from 2005 and 2006 after the Calciopoli scandal; Elgin City lost the 1992-93 Highland League title for fielding ineligible players; and Lance Armstrong was stripped of seven Tour de France victories by the UCI in 2012, while athletics has seen medals reallocated following later positive drug tests. Those examples are cited on both sides of the debate about whether football should apply the same approach to financial breaches.
Responses within and around City have been mixed. Former City midfielder Rodri said: "What we did, they cannot take out of us. It's something that is not paid by money. It's paid with effort, with the damage, with, you know, being shoulder to shoulder every day. I can tell you that everything was deserved, and I'm glad that I could live one of the best eras of English football in here." At the same time, compensation claims from rival clubs over lost earnings are seen as more likely than title removals, and a lawyer commented: "The question isn't whether the clubs can take legal action... it's: Where does the line of people who have a case actually end? The clubs who didn't win/qualify/stay up; the players who didn't get bonuses, contract extensions; the staff who missed out on bonuses; the agents who didn't get their uplift on their player deals... It's endless and potentially so destructive to the whole ecosystem."
An independent disciplinary panel remains due to conduct a sanction hearing to determine penalties and any subsequent appeals process, so the ultimate outcome — whether fines, points deductions, expulsion, retrospective title removal or other sanctions — will be decided there and only then finalised.