Man City financial investigation - LIVE: Premier League charge club and potential points deduction latest

It was around the same time as a generically pictured statement appeared on the Premier League website that legal papers were served to Manchester City executives. There was initial shock, that soon rippled around English football, as news spread. It was so abrupt that City chief executive Ferran Soriano was still on the phone to the Premier League as the statement went out. There hadn’t even been an email as regards notification - and this for a story that could yet lead to relegation or more.

The statement was nevertheless quickly shared with far more excitable exclamations.

Senior figures in football were describing it as “the biggest scandal the Premier League has faced”, “the nuclear button” and “going to war with their serial champions”. It certainly isn’t being seen as a case that will be just eased out and go nowhere. The Premier League’s published list of over 100 alleged breaches should be sufficient indication of that, especially when they could have just fined City for non-cooperation.

Executives around the game were genuinely stunned at the extent of it. It is the product of four years of investigation, that the Premier League had taken a lot of criticism for - not least from Lord Justice Males who said in a July 2021 High Court ruling over whether arbitration could be kept secret that it was “a matter of legitimate public concern”.

This was why it took so long.

Manchester City won eight pieces of silverware across a nine-year period in which they have been charged by the Premier League with more than 100 alleged breaches of financial regulations.

The champions have reacted to the alleged breaches, claiming to be “surprised” and that there is a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence” to support their innocence.

City overturned a two-year ban from Uefa in 2020 and will now brace themselves for the findings from an independent commission.

A number of punishments are available to the Premier League, should City be found guilty of the breaches, including expulsion and a points deduction.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has always said he was assured by his employers that they have done nothing wrong in terms of breaking finanical rules but the charges brough forward from the Premier League claim otherwise.

City will be challenging this allegations and should they win legally they will be clear, reputation untouched - mostly.

Should they lose, the punishments handed down would be unprecedented. The Premier League’s scope in that sense is completely open-ended and this is a precedent setting case.

City’s reputation is on the line and the outcome, whenever it comes, will be fascinating.

An arbitration panel ordered Manchester City to provide “certain documents and information to the Premier League and to make inquiries of third parties”, after the club lost a challenge over an arbitration panel’s right to hear the case.

The Court of Appeal ruling stated: “For the Premier League it was submitted that the tactic that the club has adopted has been to make as many procedural applications and complaints as it possibly can to slow the day when it will actually have to provide the information.”

The news was found on the official website, beneath a video of the former Everton midfielder Leon Osman talking about the difference Sean Dyche has made at Goodison Park, above the story about the fantasy league points the Nottingham Forest forward Brennan Johnson accrued this weekend. “Premier League statement” is a dry headline, offering little clue what it leads to.

A more newsworthy headline might have included mention of the reigning champions being charged with more than 100 breaches of financial regulations over a nine-year period, the allegation Manchester City had not been honest in disclosing how much they paid former manager Roberto Mancini, the architect of their dramatic and historic 2012 title win, or some unnamed players. It amounted to the longest charge sheet in the Premier League’s history. The consequences, if found guilty, could involve points deductions or even expulsion from the division.

It transpires City’s problems extend beyond Sunday’s 1-0 defeat against Tottenham or the suspicion their current manager, Pep Guardiola, picked the wrong team then. City have suspicions about the timing of their charges, believing the Premier League was trying to prove its toughness to show that, as the government prepares to publish a white paper, football does not need an independent regulator and that the world’s richest league can keep their own house in order.

Manchester City’s finances also came under investigation a couple of years ago from Uefa who found that City had breached their own financial rules an issued them with a two-year ban for European football.

In 2020, City overturned the Champions League ban for a serious breach of Uefa’s financial rules at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).

Cas found that, while the club had failed to comply with Uefa’s investigations, many of the alleged breaches were either “not established” or “time-barred”.

The Premier League does not time-bar breaches so there is no restriction on the length of time since alleged offences have taken place.

This means that Manchester City would have a more difficult time fighting these accusations should the independent commission find that breaches of the financial rules have taken place.

Manchester City could face expulsion from the Premier League or a points deduction if the club are found to have committed breaches of financial rules.

After a four-year investigation, the Premier League has referred a number of alleged breaches to an independent Commission.

It is alleged that Manchester City broke rules relating to the provision of “accurate financial information” across nine Premier League seasons from 2009 to 2018, and that the club had failed to cooperate with the league’s investigation since the start of the 2018-19 campaign, among wide-ranging alleged breaches.

During the time frame of the alleged breaches from Manchester City (2009/10 to 2017/28), the club won a lot of trophies.

City won the Premier League three times (2011/12, 2013/14 and 2017/18) and finished inside the top five in every season. They also came runners-up in 2012/13 and 2014/15, won the FA Cup in 2011, and the League Cup in 2014, 2016 and 2018.

However, if they are found guilty of breaching the Premier League financial rules there should not be any retrospective punishment meaning their titles and honours will all still count.

Here are the sections of the rules that the Premier League say Manchester City breached:

- Seasons 2009/10 to 2017/18 - rules that required provision, in the utmost good faith, of accurate financial information that gives a true and fair view of the club’s financial position, in particular with respect to its revenue (including sponsorship revenue), its related parties and its operating costs.

- Seasons 2009/10 to 2012/13 - rules requiring full details of manager remuneration in its relevant contracts with its manager.

- Seasons 2013/14 to 2017/18 - rules requiring club to comply with Uefa’s’ regulations, including club licensing and financial fair play.

- Seasons 2015/16 to 2017/18 inclusive - rules on profitability and sustainability,

- From December 2018 to date - requiring club to cooperate with, and assist, the Premier League in its investigations, including by providing documents and information in the utmost good faith.

This is not the first time Manchester City’s finances have been called into question.

In 2020 City had a two-year ban from European club competitions overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), after Uefa had ruled that City committed “serious breaches” of Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations between 2012 and 2016.

That period of time is covered in the Premier League’s investigation as well.