Man City could face ´serious´ punishment, says expert Maguire

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire believes if Manchester City are found guilty of breaching the Premier League’s financial rules, that it should be reflected in their punishment.

The independent hearing, which started last month, is anticipated to last approximately two months, although the verdict is not expected to be made public until early next year.

If found guilty, the sternest punishment is relegation, while points deductions and fines are also potential penalties.

City have been charged with breaking financial fair play (FFP) rules, with the breaches allegedly going back over a decade.

The Citizens were charged with 54 counts of failing to provide accurate financial information from 2009-10 until 2017-18, while also failing to provide accurate details for player and manager payments from 2009-10 to 2017-18 on 14 separate occasions.

City have been handed five charges related to their inability to comply with UEFA’s rules, including FFP from 2013-14 to 2017-18, with another seven charges for breaching the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability (PSR) rules from 2015-16 until 2017-18.

The final 35 charges are for failing to cooperate with Premier League investigations from December 2018 until February 2023.

City did, however, claim a victory in their recent legal challenge against the Premier League over Associated Party Transaction rules, though that is totally separate to the 115 charges.

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Both Everton and Nottingham Forest were deducted points last season for breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules.

However, Maguire believes that should City be found guilty on all 115 of their charges, then a possible points deduction should be fair in comparison to what was handed to both Everton and Forest.

“I think the reason why I say that, and again, I’ve got no inside knowledge of any of this, is that if we take a look at the commission hearings in relation to Nottingham Forest and Everton, one of the revealing things was that one of the commissions had said, I think this was in the case of Forest, ultimately, this is a minor breach of the rules, and this has resulted in what was a four-point deduction,” Maguire told Stats Perform.

“As far as Nottingham Forest are concerned, given that that was a minor breach of the rules which covered a narrow period of time and a very specific, narrow set of circumstances, what Manchester City are being accused of is effectively corporate fraud over a nine-year period – they’ve been lying to the Premier League in relation to their finances.

“Well, that’s far more serious than a technical breach of an overspend. So, if it’s a four-point deduction for a minor breach, and all 115 charges are upheld, then surely that’s a major breach, and that has to be reflected in the deduction.”

Since the Abu Dhabi United Group’s takeover in 2008, City have spent approximately €2,5987 billion (£2,1649bn), spending the most money in the 2017-18 season (£245.7m) with the most notable signings including Aymeric Laporte, Benjamin Mendy, Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva, and Ederson.

City’s most expensive player during that time was Jack Grealish, who arrived from Aston Villa in a £100m deal – which at the time constituted the most expensive transfer of an English player ever.

Maguire went on to say that should City only be found guilty of failing to cooperate with the Premier League, then a financial sanction seems more likely, as opposed to a points deduction or relegation.

“My one reservation on all of this is that if the only thing that Manchester City are found guilty of is not cooperating with the Premier League, then probably the appropriate punishment is a financial one because they’ve not had a sporting advantage,” Maguire concluded.

“You can argue that bringing in more, artificially inflating the money coming in, and messing around with the wages, has allowed Manchester City to recruit these other players, and on the back of that, they’ve been successful on the pitch.

“So, we need an on-field punishment if it’s just for non-cooperation with the Premier League, and given that the Premier League hasn’t cooperated with Manchester City in terms of getting these deals through against this separate hearing, I don’t think that a points deduction is appropriate.”