FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Premier League - Manchester City v West Ham United - Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Britain - January 4, 2025 Manchester City's Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne line up in a wall to defend a free kick Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith/File Photo/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) -Premier League champions Manchester City's well-chronicled troubles on the field this season could pale into insignificance in the coming weeks if an independent commission rules that the club has breached multiple financial regulations.
City's unexpected meltdown on the pitch has all but knocked Pep Guardiola's side out of contention for a fifth successive title and they are even in danger of exiting the Champions League at the first stage.
But while form is temporary and fixable, a much larger and darker cloud has stationed itself over the Abu Dhabi-owned club that in the last decade has amassed a vast haul of silverware and become the dominant force in English soccer.
Three judges appointed by the independent chair of the Premier League Judicial Panel spent more than two months listening to evidence and submissions in relation to the 115 charges brought against City two years ago.
City have always denied any wrongdoing and said at the time of the referral to the Premier League's independent commission that they were surprised by the league's "issuing of these alleged breaches."
All eyes will now be on the verdict, which is expected soon, and, in the event of City being found guilty of the most serious charges against them, how draconian the punishment might be.
While Everton and Nottingham Forest both fell foul of the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability (PSR) rules last season and were duly docked points, the allegations against City are in a different league, both in terms of their seriousness and duration.
The multitude of charges run from 2009 to the 2022-23 season but arguably the most damaging allegation is that every season from 2009-10 to 2017-18 the club failed to provide accurate financial information to give a "true and fair view" of revenues, including sponsorships, and operating costs.
City have denied the allegations and employed a crack team of lawyers to fight their case.
"Has money come in from the owners which they pretend to be from the sponsors? If that is the case, then that is fraud. That is about as serious as it gets," soccer finance expert Kieran Maguire, author of the Price of Football, told The Overlap.
In the event of City being found guilty of some or all of the charges against them, the punishments could range from a massive fine and huge deduction of points to titles being stripped or even expulsion from the Premier League.
While being relegated or ejected from the Premier League is perhaps the least likely outcome, City could effectively be relegated if they were hit with an unprecedented deduction that some reports speculate could be more than 60 points.
"If they are found guilty, I think the first point there is nobody should be really using Everton and Forest as a benchmark, certainly if we talk about points deductions as a potential punishment," Dan Plumley, a football finance expert at Sheffield Hallam University, told Reuters.
"They were relatively straightforward breaches of PSR within that three-year window and were dealt with in line with those circumstances, so I think trying to kind of multiply points deductions out for this one is completely futile."
Plumley thinks it is unlikely City would be stripped of any of the Premier League titles they won during the span of the allegations against them and says the potential for the saga to rumble on through an appeals process and thereby throw the end of the season into chaos is worrying.
"It's within the Premier League's discretion as to whether they go down that route, my take on that is I think it's always seemed unlikely," he said. "To go back and retrospectively unpick that. There are lots of other factors there you need to consider and it's not as simple as giving it to the next placed team, it would throw up a whole range of permutations."
The Premier League is regarded as one of the best-run and most successful competitions in world sport and Manchester City, in many respects since Guardiola instilled his magical brand of football, have been a benchmark for excellence.
The most pessimistic City fans will console themselves with Guardiola's vow to stay whatever fate befalls the club.
Owner Sheikh Mansour and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak have bathed in glory for a decade, but where a guilty verdict and accompanying punishment would leave City's hierarchy is another question entirely.
(Reporting by Martyn HermanEditing by Toby Davis)
