Manchester City have been found guilty of the vast majority of the Premier League’s 115 financial charges, but the case is far from over. An independent commission has reportedly upheld 114 charges relating to the 2009–10 to 2017–18 seasons, yet no sanctions have been imposed, City plan to appeal, and a separate sanctions hearing is still to take place.
The verdict has reignited fierce debate over how the club should be punished. Former Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has said City “must be punished” and made an example of, but warned that retrospectively revising league tables or stripping past titles would do “incredible damage” to the Premier League’s reputation.
Legal experts, including disputes partner Daniel Gore of Withers LLP, consider title removal “highly unlikely,” with fines and points-based sanctions viewed as more probable outcomes.
According to reporting by The Athletic and confirmed in subsequent coverage, an independent commission has found City guilty of 114 of the 115 charges brought by the Premier League in February 2023.
The alleged breaches span nine seasons from 2009–10 to 2017–18 and include failures to provide accurate financial information, disclosure issues around player and manager remuneration, profitability-and-sustainability rule violations, UEFA-related requirements and a large number of charges for failing to co-operate with the Premier League’s investigation.
The hearing itself began on 16 September 2024 and ran for almost three months behind closed doors, concluding on 6 December 2024.
Despite the reported guilty findings, the commission has not yet held a separate sanctions hearing, meaning no punishment—whether a fine, points deduction, expulsion or any other measure—has been decided or announced.
City have consistently denied wrongdoing throughout the process and are expected to appeal the findings.
Under Premier League regulations, the club has 14 days from the decision to lodge an appeal, which would be heard by a three-person appeal panel chaired by former High Court judge Sir Gary Hickinbottom.
Any appeal would postpone the implementation of sanctions, and the Premier League’s appeal panel decision is final, with no further right of appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Harry Redknapp, who managed Tottenham during part of the period in question, has said Spurs supporters are right to feel “cheated” after narrowly missing Champions League qualification in seasons when City were competing at the top end of the table.
But he has drawn a clear line against retrospective punishment.
“Champions League football over those two years could have changed so much for Spurs but I have no interest in the Premier League going back and deducting points from those seasons or deducting titles from City,” Redknapp said.
He argued that reopening old results would undermine confidence in the league: “Opening up all those previous seasons would do incredible damage to a league which is the envy of the world.”
Redknapp’s position is that City should face severe sanctions that act as a deterrent, but focused on the future rather than revising historical outcomes.
The Premier League’s rules give the independent commission broad disciplinary powers. Sanctions expressly contemplated include a reprimand, fine, points deduction and expulsion from the league; the rules also allow the commission to impose “such further or other penalty as it shall think fit.”
