What happens next with Manchester City's charges

We now know that Manchester City have been found guilty of numerous rule breaches, but it is clear that the seemingly interminable legal battle is far from over.

“The Premier League process still has a long way to run, and our confidence and intent in proving the club’s innocence is just as strong as when this began,” declared Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the City chairman.

Strict confidentiality on both sides means the league has refused even to confirm the precise tally of charges against City (calculations range from 115 to 130) let alone answer wider questions how that process will now unfold. But the Premier League handbook, specifically Rule W, does at least provide some guidance what we can now expect.

Will the Premier League publish the commission’s findings?

With City first charged in February 2023, legal experts believe the case is still following the rules set out for the 2022-23 season. The Premier League specifically referred to Rule W82.1 when announcing the original City charges more than three years ago after City had gone to the Court of Appeal over whether a judgment linked to the investigation should be published. That rule sets out the league’s commitment to publicly disclosing allegations of rule breaches. Rule W82.2 then states that the Premier League is also duty-bound to publish what it calls “the final awards” of any commission or appeal on its website.

Whether we are now at that “final awards” stage, however, is unclear and may well depend on whether any common ground can be agreed between City and the Premier League on when findings should be publicly released. In the Everton case of financial rule breaches, the Premier League only made an announcement once the sanctions were separately decided. The scale of these charges combined with City’s absolute denial of any wrongdoing, however, has long made this case unique in English football history.

What are the possible sanctions... and how are they decided?

Once decisions have been made on allegations, the rulebook moves to section W50 headed “Commission’s Powers”. It says that the respondents to the charges are asked to put any mitigating factors before them. The commission should consider these factors before deciding sanctions, which begin with a reprimand and range through penalties including unlimited fines, suspensions, points deductions, expulsion and ultimately “such other order as it thinks fit”.

In practice, the expectation is that the Premier League would be asked to put forward a suggested sanction and City – who are expected to immediately appeal the findings – would also have an opportunity to make their own suggestions. According to one source, this could raise the spectre of the Premier League potentially being conflicted between protecting its brand and its perception of the competition’s wider interests and satisfying the likely desire among some of its members for a severe punishment.

Some disciplinary processes have ended with a “sanction agreement”, such as Chelsea’s £10.65m settlement earlier this year for breaches of rules relating to financial reporting, third-party investment and youth development. Although this may appear unlikely, there are cases where it can become mutually preferable.

Any sanction still has to be ratified by the commission, but according to one lawyer with experience of such situations, they will rarely go beyond what the Premier League or the Football League suggests. “It would be very unusual for the Premier League to push for, say 30 points, and the panel says ‘Well, actually, we think it should be 60 or an automatic relegation’,” said the expert.

“What tends to happen is the panel then goes to each side and says, ‘look, this is the result. In light of the result, what do you think the sanction should be?’ It usually then ends up in between.”

Section W50 also deals with compensation and would allow the commission to order payments, with no set limit, to another club or person. It also says that any fines and costs shall be recoverable by the [Premier League] board “as a civil debt”.

Will City be relegated?

It is within the scope of sanctions for the commission to impose a points penalty that would effectively guarantee City’s relegation from the top flight. A deduction of 40 points would have been sufficient in each of the past two seasons to seal their fate. There is no close precedent to the range and volume of charges against City but Everton and Nottingham Forest were previously deducted respectively six and four points for a single breach of profitability and sustainability rules.

Expulsion from the Premier League is also among the range of sanctions, although that would prompt fixture chaos in the middle of a season. It would be unclear in that scenario where City could re-enter the pyramid. City maintain their innocence and are expected to appeal against the verdicts. They could also appeal against any of the sanctions.

How can Manchester City appeal?

City have been steadfast in maintaining their innocence. When the charges were first announced, they promised “irrefutable evidence” in support of their position and said that they looked forward “to this matter being put to rest”. On Saturday, Al Mubarak’s statement again stressed that “nothing has changed”.

It seems certain, therefore, that City will appeal against both the actual substance of the findings as well as any sanctions. Section W62 of the 2022‐23 handbook deals with appeals and says that it can contest “the relief, order, measure or sanction imposed”, as well as any compensation award.

An appeal must be heard by a three-person board appointed by the Premier League’s chairman of the judicial panel (now Sir Gary Hickinbottom after Murray Rosen’s term ended last year) and must be made “within 14 days of the date of the decision appealed against”.

The appeal board should then be convened “as soon as reasonably practicable”, with the decision also “announced as soon as practicable after the appeal hearing”. It can allow or dismiss the appeal as well as change any sanction or compensation imposed. Subject to arbitration in the Premier League handbook, the appeal board’s decision is final and a case cannot go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. It is feasible, however, that a challenge could be made to the arbitral award in the High Court under the Arbitration Act.

When will City be punished?

In the case of Everton, the original sanction of a 10-point deduction was imposed immediately before being reduced to six following appeal. The complexity of the City case, however, could mean an appeal stretches into a different season. It could be argued, therefore, that any sanction should wait until after an appeal is complete.

“I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but it is truly unprecedented,” said Simon Leaf, partner at Three Points Law, and co-author of the chapter on financial regulation in the seminal textbook Football and the Law . “If you look at Everton, the original sanction was applied immediately, but it was then reduced on appeal. So a sanction can be applied before an appeal is determined and then varied on appeal, either in relation to the verdict or the sanction itself.

“I think, from a timing perspective, the Premier League will be relieved to have some kind of decision relatively early in the season, which I suspect they will feel gives enough time for any appeal to be heard and, ideally, decided before the end of the season. Given the complexity, that is not a foregone conclusion though.”