Manchester City’s long-running Premier League case has entered a more serious phase, with the club found guilty of most of the 115 charges brought against it. Yet Ferran Soriano, the City Football Group chief executive, has indicated that the champions do not intend to accept the outcome quietly.
Speaking at a meeting of European club executives in Copenhagen, held before the association’s general assembly, Soriano told fellow directors that City would continue to contest the case. He said the investigation had already taken eight years to reach this point and would take considerably longer to conclude, a clear reference to the Premier League inquiry that began in 2018.
Soriano left the meeting without taking questions from the media. His stance echoed Khaldoon Al Mubarak’s message to supporters, in which the City chairman said the club remained fully confident that it would establish its innocence.
The charges cover a wide range of alleged rule breaches. At their centre are claims that City overstated sponsorship income from businesses connected to the club’s ownership and made further payments outside the formal accounts in an effort to evade financial regulations. City are expected to appeal the findings.
The consequences could stretch well beyond the appeal process. Other Premier League clubs are seeking legal advice over whether they may pursue compensation in relation to the case, adding another front to an already complicated dispute between City and the competition.
A punishment once envisaged
A severe sporting sanction was discussed when the allegations first became public in 2023. Adam Crafton described a proposal attributed to a former senior Premier League executive under which City would lose between 20 and 25 points in each of the following three to five seasons.
Such a deduction, applied year after year, would make Champions League qualification extremely difficult and could leave City marooned in mid-table for much of that period. It was a proposed approach rather than a confirmed punishment, but it illustrates the scale of the potential disruption facing the club as its battle moves into another lengthy chapter.
