Manchester City face the most consequential days of their modern era after the Premier League found the club guilty of 115 alleged breaches of its financial regulations, ending a process centred on conduct between 2009 and 2018.
The news from the club
The ruling, announced on Tuesday, leaves City exposed to a range of possible penalties. These can include removal from the competition, a points deduction, financial fines and the retrospective stripping of titles.
City retain the right to appeal until Friday, 2 October. The club’s manager Pep Guardiola responded on Wednesday with a message of support for the Etihad leadership and for Manchester City as a whole.
The case has inevitably revived memories of City’s prolonged title battles with Liverpool under Jürgen Klopp. Liverpool finished a single point behind Guardiola’s side twice during Klopp’s nine-year spell at Anfield, a period in which the German led the club to both the Premier League and Champions League.
Klopp, now Germany’s national-team manager after leaving Liverpool in 2024, said he would not be drawn into predicting the outcome or celebrating any potential reassignment of honours. He had previously joked that he would attend a parade if Liverpool were later awarded titles, but said that was no longer how he viewed the situation.
“I have seen the news, but I have not spent much time thinking about it,” Klopp said. “I know what I said before, including about a possible parade, yet I do not feel that way now. My respect for Pep Guardiola, for the football City played when we met, and for the level of rivalry they gave us is too great for me to comment further.”
Klopp and Guardiola were opponents first in Germany and then in England, with Guardiola in charge of City from 2016 to 2026. Klopp said Liverpool’s achievements remained meaningful irrespective of any later development in the case, and that the proper course was to let the legal process continue without speculation.
The appeal window
Friday, 2 October is the deadline for Manchester City to launch an appeal against the Premier League decision. Until that stage has passed, the scale and form of any sanction remain unresolved.
