Pep Guardiola’s Man City still have Premier League charges hanging over them. (Image: Carl Recine / Getty Images)
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire claims Manchester City do not face automatic relegation down the Football League if they are found guilty of their 115 financial charges. The club’s ongoing legal tussle with the Premier League is yet to conclude, despite an independent hearing having ended over a year ago.
City face accusations of breaching financial regulations from 2009 to 2018 – during which time they won the Premier League three times. They have consistently denied all allegations and, while it is often labelled 115 charges, there could be up to 130 potential breaches – after an initial reporting error.
City released their latest financial report in December, 2025, and underscored the anticipation of the independent commission’s verdict. They said: “On 6 February 2023, in accordance with Premier League Rule W.82.1, the Premier League referred a number of alleged breaches of the Premier League Rules by Manchester City Football Club to a Commission under Premier League Rule W.3.4.
“In response to the charges, the club issued a public statement that it welcomes the review of this matter by an independent commission to impartially consider the comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position. As at the date of publishing these financial statements, the independent commission is still in the process of reviewing the matter.”
Ever since the charges 100-plus surfaced, there has been speculation regarding potential penalties, with some suggesting they could drop down as far as League Two or even the National League. However, Maguire believes a substantial points deduction is ‘more probable’ given the differing constitutions of the Premier League and English Football League.
He told Express Sport: “If there are 115 charges against Man City, then Man City must have put 115 defences, so that’s going to involve hundreds and thousands of pieces of evidence. If you take a look at the cases against Forest and Everton, which were relatively narrow and effectively one charge from the Premier League, there were tens of thousands of pieces of evidence, which were submitted by the Premier League and the clubs during that particular hearing.
EXPRESS SPORT ON FB! Get all the best sports news and much more on our Facebook page
Pep Guardiola has previously spoken bullishly about standing by Man City – whatever the outcome. (Image: Danehouse / Getty Images)
“Also, the charges against City are much more serious than those we saw, which resulted in points deductions for Everton and Forest. For City, it’s effectively an allegation of fraud; the Premier League alleges that they received money from the owner and disguised it as sponsorship income.
“That’s a very serious offence. You have to have fairly overwhelming evidence of guilt because it’s a very significant allegation, and it’s taking a lot of time, as there are three people on the independent commission.
“They are not working together every day because they are incredibly successful in their own walks of life, so they don’t have a lot of time and might just be getting together just a few times a month because they’ve got existing work commitments. Therefore, it’s a very slow process.
“I suspect the Premier League regrets making 115 charges; they could have chosen the ones they felt they had the strongest case for, and, on that basis, we would have had a verdict by now.
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters continues to say very little about the charges case. (Image: Getty Images)
“If you take a look at the verdicts in the hearings against Everton and Forest, the one thing that became very clear was that if a football club has been involved in activities that, as a result have given them an advantage on the pitch – i.e from overspending or hiding costs – these were the cases that were proven by the commissions against those clubs. They were both issued a points deduction.
“Now, the charges against Man City cover a nine-year period- rather than a single PSR calculation – and therefore they would have to be a significant multiple-point deduction, adding a zero or more, so 40-60 points. Could that be viable? Yes, it could. Could it be more? Absolutely.
“But because the Premier League and the EFL are independent of one another, there’s no way the Premier League can say they’re going to relegate Man City to League Two because they’ve got no power over what happens in the EFL. From the EFL point of view, having Man City in the Championship would be a huge asset to them, with a huge amount of interest.
“I suspect that, because of the way the English football system is set up with the three governing bodies (the FA, the Premier League and the EFL), the Premier League cannot impose a punishment that the EFL must take on. So it has to be a points deduction, and if that results in relegation, then the EFL would be obliged to accept Man City into the Championship next season.”