Man City warned they could face triple figure points deduction with Premier League hearing set to begin

With a hearing into the Premier League’s 115 charges against Manchester City set to begin next week, the champions have been sent an ominous warning.

The long-awaited Financial Fair Play hearing will take place in what’s considered a ‘sealed room’ leading to rife speculation due to the few details available.

One expert who has some insight is football finance writer Kieran Maguire, who was able to compare the Premier League’s cases against Everton and Leicester.

In both cases the league laid charges against the sides, with Leicester successful in their appeal, but Everton not, leading to a total of 12 points deducted in two separate cases against the Merseyside club.

Explaining what kind of punishment could come City’s way, Maguire told talkSPORT: “It can’t really be a financial punishment because that would make everybody think the whole thing was a waste of time. 

“So if you look at the hearing for both Everton and Nottingham Forest, the commissions of both said ‘this was a minor breach of the rules’ now if the allegations against Manchester City are proven that surely has to be a major breach of the rules, effectively that the club misrepresented the money coming into the club. 

“The club also has been accused of disguising payments to players and managers, effectively being paid by third parties offshore, being paid by Abu Dhabi for services provided by members of staff and that is also completely against the rules also one would think, although it could be that it’s within the Premier League rules.

“So we would have to be looking at a very significant points deduction. If all 115 charges are proven, then you’d have to imagine that the points deduction would be somewhere in the region of 60 to 100 points on the basis that they would want the club to have suffered enough to be heading out of the division.”

A three figure penalty would relegate City, but Maguire still thinks it will be a very long time until we have a definitive answer to what happens if they’re found guilty.

“Whilst the hearing will finish in eight weeks, if you’ve got all that evidence to present to the commission they’re probably going to take three to four months,” he explained. 

“They’ve got to rule on all the 115 charges separately as to whether or not they believe Manchester City to be guilty, if they are guilty all of them then it’s got to be so severe that any club thinking of going down that route again will realise that it would be a very detrimental thing for that club’s future.”

Despite so much at risk, City are still very confident, with manager Pep Guardiola telling the media he is ‘looking forward to the decision’.

Explaining why the club are so hopeful, Maguire added: “They are very confident, they will say first of all that the allegations they didn’t cooperate with the Premier League – well why should they? They believe that the Premier League’s case is based on hacked emails which have been criminally obtained, then you’ve got to say you’ve got to look at the context of those emails and they will have people who potentially might say you misinterpreted the contents.

“Can they defend themselves successfully? They wouldn’t have employed the lawyers that they have done if that was the case.”

However, Maguire isn’t so sure about an appeal should they fail to win the case.

“I think it could be quite a difficult scenario to appeal,” he said. “The Premier League has tried to organise it in such a way that I don’t think Manchester City would be able to go to CAS [Court of Arbitration for Sport], so it would have to be on something that happened during the course of the commission hearing that was not in line with the due process.”

The trial is expected to run for 10 weeks with a verdict likely in early 2025.

Man City have also been accused by the Premier League of not co-operating with the investigation.

City have always denied the allegations and claimed they are ‘entirely false’.

Asked about the trial starting, manager Pep Guardiola said: “Start soon, and hopefully finish soon,” Guardiola said of the hearing. “An independent panel will decide and I am looking forward to the decision.

“I’m happy it’s starting on Monday. I know there will be more rumours, new specialists about the sentences. We’re going to see. I know what people are looking forward to, what they expect, I know, what I read for many, many years.

“Everybody is innocent until guilt is proven. So we’ll see.”