Manchester City are unlikely to be expelled from the Premier League according to a number of club executives who were asked what they think their punishment should be.
City were found guilty of breaching 114 Premier League rules by an independent commission last month, as the panel found them to have used ‘sham’ sponsorship deals to boost they earnings by around £900m between 2009 and 2018.
The club have now appealed that verdict as they insist upon their innocence and clim they have ‘irrefutable evidence’ to prove it, in the form of documents showing that the sponsorship funds came from the Abu Dhabi government rather from their owners.
READ: Ten Manchester City grounds for appeal and why they won’t wash
The initial three-man commission has already seen this evidence, as it ‘concluded it was an explanation that the club had concocted well after the event in an attempt to conceal the realities of the Disguised Funding Scheme’, but City hope an all-new panel will rule in their favour.
Possible punishments include fines, transfer bans, points deductions and even Premier League expulsion, while it’s also been suggested the club should have their titles stripped in a retrospective action.
Pundits and fans have had their say on what the sanctions should be, and now The Athletic have asked a number of club executives what they think, with one explaining how a City fine should be redistributed.
“Let’s say they should put a billion pounds into a pot,” he said, speaking anonymously. “Then the Premier League would need to come up with a formula so that the teams who endured the most direct damage receive a greater proportion of the money, which would possibly make those teams whole, or at least be a number they could live with and move on. That way, the Premier League helps to prevent a waterfall of club-on-club lawsuits.”
Further lawsuits would be a disaster for the Premier League, who want a process that’s already dragged on and on to be over as soon as possible. Others have said the funds should trickle down throughout the football pyramid.
Relegation from the Premier League creates a problem for the EFL, as explained by a director at Championship side Wrexham.
He said: “I can understand the sanction and penalising City (if guilty upon appeal) but… if they were to be relegated to the Championship, that is one promotion place gone for next season. Clubs have been investing for that opportunity. So how do you square a punishment on City that then turns into a punishment on 24 other clubs?”
And how many points should they be deducted? A current Premier League owner says it is “almost impossible to conceive” of a proportional punishment. Given Everton and Nottingham Forest were docked eight and our points respectively for relatively minor infractions, City ought to be deducted hundreds.
As he went on to explain, the problem with a 100+ point deduction is how the TV companies might react to Erling Haaland and his teammates playing in meaningless fixtures, while he also worries that a lack of Man City incentive to fight for survival in the Premier League could lead them to not field strong teams in order to focus on other competitions, skewing the results.
Another ex-Premier League executive is concerned about how an extended transfer ban might be implemented. “If they are relegated and lose half their squad, they probably do need to be allowed to acquire senior players to field a team,” he said.
Expulsion not expected
And the report also claims that ‘several executives say they are not expecting the three-man commission to recommend sanctions as severe as expulsion, largely because they would usually be expected to offer up sanctions that are solely within the remit of the commission’.
14 of the 20 Premier League clubs would be required to vote in favour of expulsion, which is by no means guaranteed.
While the consensus is that City should be punished severely for their wrongdoing, one prominent investor in European football reminds us all that “we are not curing cancer here”.
He said: “We should remember, too, that football is entertainment. We are not curing cancer here. We kick a ball in coloured shirts and try to win more games than the others. It is supposed to take your mind off stuff. The last thing we should be doing is taking that club altogether away from its community.”
