In the past fortnight, the Premier League has been rocked by an independent commission’s finding that Manchester City are guilty of 114 of the 115 charges brought against them for breaches of its rules.
The findings detailed a disguised funding scheme involving sham contracts, artificially inflated revenues, understated operating costs, concealed finances and obstruction of the investigation. That is a very damning conclusion in a case of this magnitude. So, what’s next?
The footballing world, from grassroots to the very top, is now waiting to see what sanctions Manchester City will face. City maintain their innocence and lodged an appeal on 1 October.
Other clubs have received sanctions for what were, arguably, lesser offences.
1. Nottingham Forest breached the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) and received a four-point deduction in 2024.
2. Everton received deductions of six and two points in 2023/24 for exceeding their permitted losses by £19.5 million and £16.6 million over assessment periods ending in 2021/22 and 2022/23 respectively. The first penalty was initially ten points, reduced to six on appeal.
3. Although not in the Premier League at the time, Luton Town were docked ten points in 2007/08 for entering administration, then a total of 30 points in 2008/09 for irregular agent payments and failing to comply with insolvency rules when leaving administration. The Hatters were relegated from League One and then League Two in consecutive seasons, with the 30-point deduction proving decisive in their fall into what was then the Conference Premier, now the National League.
4. Two other examples involve Southampton last season and, last, but not least, Enfield Town FC.
Southampton were expelled from the Championship play-offs in May 2026, ending their chance of promotion to the Premier League, and deducted four points for the 2026/27 campaign after admitting spying on three opponents’ training sessions.
In 2014/15, Enfield Town were deducted three points for fielding Aryan Tajbakhsh while he should have been suspended. The club said duplicate disciplinary records created by his previous clubs had obscured the ban, and that they had alerted the FA themselves. The deduction denied the in-form Towners a play-off place and the chance of promotion to National League South. To my mind, they paid the price for administrative failings elsewhere.
We could cover many more examples of clubs receiving points deductions: Portsmouth (nine points in 2009/10), Derby County (21 points in 2021/22) and Leeds United (15 points in 2007/08), to mention just three.
So, what should Manchester City’s punishment be?
First and foremost, we need to ask whether City’s current owners are fit and proper people to run not only a Premier League football club, but a company of any description. Should they be banned?
Should City be given a points deduction? Should it apply to one season or to each of the nine seasons covered by the financial breaches? Or should they simply be relegated down a league — or several leagues?
The Premier League wants its owners, players and managers to be role models for future custodians of clubs and those who aspire to become players or managers.
In this scenario, it is the Premier League that needs to step up and be a role model for football leagues and teams up and down the country by upholding the rules of our national game.
The world will be watching how the richest league in the world regulates one of its richest members. All the more reason for consistency when our own Prime Minister has called for FIFA’s president to resign.
I think the correct and moral outcome would be for City’s current owners to sell up and step away from football or be banned from owning a club in this country. I would hope UEFA and FIFA would back that with a worldwide ban.
Furthermore, if those findings of nearly a decade of cheating are upheld, I believe a deduction of 30 or more points every season for nine seasons, and relegation to League Two, would be a satisfactory punishment.
It would set a precedent for others who dare to corrupt our beautiful game in any shape or form.
Main image, top, of Roberto Mancini, Samir Nasri and Sergio Aguero with the Premier League trophy on Manchester City's victory parade, 14 May 2012. Photo © Oldelpaso / Wikimedia, cc by-sa 3.0
