City ruin the international break

Thanks, Premier League. I thought I was getting a few weeks off with it being the international break. But, never mind eh…

After years of waiting, the Premier League have finally delivered their verdict on Manchester City’s charges. 

So what have City actually been found guilty of? Well, the findings cover nine seasons between 2009-10 up until the 2017-18 season. 

The independent commission found that City have been using “sham” commercial contracts with some of their sponsors. I have to say, sham has made a late charge towards word of the year. Anyway, according to the reports the sponsors were only paying a percentage of the contracts with the Abu Dhabi United Group funding the remaining part of the deal.

According to the Premier League report, these fees inflated the clubs revenue and reduced their costs by more than £900 million. For context, you could buy 17 Erling Haalands with that...if the original fee was reported correctly.

The report also found that the club had failed to accurately report their income and expenditure to both the Premier League and UEFA. If it had been recorded properly, then they would have been in breach of both authorities’ spending limits. 

The case isn’t just that of a financial breach of the rules and a club spending well over the limits. There is also the co-operation side of the case: the Premier League brought four allegations against City relating to their failure to assist and provide information during the investigation. The commission upheld three of those four allegations, finding that City had failed to co-operate with the investigation.

Unsurprisingly, City have rejected and appealed the verdict. The club has described itself as disappointed and surprised by the commission's conclusions and maintains that it has a substantial body of evidence supporting its position.

The Premier League began investigating City back in December 2018, with the independent commission's 42-day hearing finally concluding in December 2024. It then took until September 2026 for a decision to arrive.

For those wondering where this leaves City, it’s a bit like visiting your GP with an insect bite. You sit and wait around for what feels like an eternity only to discover that they’ve found that your head is about to fall off, so off you go to A&E, where unfortunately another long wait lies ahead. It'll be years till this thing is over.

Oh. How could I forget? Arguably the most important part of all this is the eventual punishment. Currently, there is no definitive sanction, but I saw an interesting idea on social media. Instead of just relegating City, be that through a massive points deduction or just expelling them immediately to the EFL or potentially further down the pyramid, they should deduct them points for as many seasons as they breaches were made. Not a massive amount, just enough so they wouldn’t be competing for European places as well as being out of sight of relegation. Let them fight for mid-table mediocrity for years on end. Real City fans know all about that.

For now though, there is nothing left for City to do but wait. The appeal is coming, the punishment will follow and this saga is clearly nowhere near finished. At least there’s an international break to give everyone a chance to catch their breath.