Man City 115 charges latest as '60-point deduction' could impact Liverpool

Soccer finance expert Kieran Maguire estimates Manchester City could face a points deduction of 40 to 60 points if found guilty of alleged breaches, based on Premier League precedents

Manchester City denies all the allegations made against the club(Image: Getty Images)

Manchester City faces the prospect of a 40 to 60-point deduction should it be convicted of the gravest allegations levelled against it, a soccer finance specialist has warned.

Both City and the Premier League remain in limbo, awaiting the outcome of proceedings concerning 115 alleged financial violations by the club spanning 2009 to 2018. City has denied all accusations and is said to be optimistic about exoneration.

The tribunal examining City's alleged contraventions of the Premier League's fiscal regulations wrapped up in December 2024 after a 12-week hearing, yet the independent panel has still to release its findings publicly. Liverpool and other Premier League teams are keen to know the outcome of the case.

It has now been 14 months since the tribunal concluded, with the commission continuing its deliberations. Soccer finance specialist Kieran Maguire, who has monitored proceedings closely, estimates that approximately 500,000 pieces of evidence were submitted by both sides throughout the hearing.

Maguire anticipates a decision within the coming months, with City and the Premier League expected to receive 24 hours' advance warning before public disclosure.

While forecasting the result remains impossible, he notes that examining recent precedents reveals just how momentous the consequences could prove for City, should the ruling go against the Manchester club.

Liverpool could be impacted by the outcome of the investigation(Image: Getty Images)

"The Premier League cannot relegate Manchester City to League One or League Two because that's an EFL decision and Manchester City have not had any charges proven against them by the EFL, so therefore it has to be a points deduction," Maguire explained on The Overlap Fan Debate.

"If we take a look at precedents, we've had Everton and Nottingham Forest with six and four-point deductions for a single offence covering a three-year period. The accusations against Manchester City cover a nine-year period, so it's far bigger. The numbers involved, we're not certain about, but they're likely to be quite significant.

"So I think you have to add a zero to what we've seen from Forest and Everton, so somewhere between a 40 and 60-point deduction would, I think, on merit, be consistent with what we've seen from other decisions on logic. If they want to go further then we don't know the severity.

"In the cases of both Forest and Everton, they were to do with FFP [Financial Fair Play] purely. The accusations against Manchester City are why it's taking so long. Corporate fraud is a very serious accusation. The board of directors would have to go. How can you be in a meeting room with other members of the Premier League and the Premier League itself, of whom you're a shareholder, with this accusation being proven?

"If you take a look at what happened with Juventus in Serie A, their board had to resign when they were claiming things about player wages that were proven to be untrue. I think there's an honesty thing here, if Manchester City are proven to be guilty. And that could mean a complete restructure of the club."

Hypothetically speaking, Liverpool would be affected if City received a 60-point deduction today. The Reds would climb up to fifth in the table, which could be enough for Champions League qualification come May, while City would sit 20th in the standings on -4 points.

Considerable frustration surrounds the prolonged timeline, attributed to the intricate nature of the proceedings and the requirement for the three-member panel to reach a collective verdict.

"[Judging] by the cases similar to a fraud case, I think we're probably into the final reaches of getting a decision," Maguire added. "I think part of the challenge is that, because there are three very senior people on the call for making that final judgement, getting those three together at the same time is actually very difficult and that has delayed the case.

"It should be resolved in the next few months, but we've said this before. But there's an awful lot of evidence to go through and the charges are very very serious so you've got to have enough evidence."