Manchester City’s reported guilty verdict on 114 of their 115 Premier League financial charges has raised questions about whether the club could lose some of the titles they won during the period under investigation.
However, stripping City of their titles may not be as straightforward as many people think.
The independent commission has reportedly found City guilty of 114 charges, but it has not yet decided the sanctions. City are also expected to appeal the verdict, meaning the case is still far from its conclusion.
The Premier League could impose a range of punishments, including financial penalties and points deductions. The rules also give the commission broad discretion over sanctions, but there is no established Premier League precedent for stripping titles over financial-rule breaches.
The Premier League Will Want To Protect It’s Reputation
The Premier League will also have to consider the wider consequences of any punishment.
If it retrospectively strips Manchester City of multiple titles, the league could face comparisons with Serie A after the Calciopoli scandal in 2006.
Juventus lost two Serie A titles and suffered relegation to the second tier after the scandal, which significantly changed how people viewed the competition.
The Premier League will not want its biggest competition to be viewed in the same way or have its previous seasons heavily questioned.
City’s Titles Are Complicated
Three of City’s Premier League titles fall within the main period covered by the charges: 2011/12, 2013/14 and 2017/18.
But determining whether another club should receive those titles creates another complicated issue. A retrospective points deduction does not automatically mean the runner-up becomes champion, and football finance expert Kieran Maguire has previously explained that establishing which clubs directly lost silverware because of City’s alleged breaches could prove difficult.
For now, City have lost neither their titles nor their place in the Premier League.
The verdict is significant, but the punishment, appeal and potential consequences still have to play out before anyone can determine what happens to Manchester City’s trophy cabinet.
