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Chelsea have received their punishment but Manchester City are still waiting to see if they will be found guilty of a number of financial rules breaches that could see them deducted points
The Premier League has potentially offered a hint at the significance of any punishment awaiting Manchester City if they are found guilty of the 115 charges levied against them, after suggesting Chelsea got off with a softer touch due to their cooperation. The Blues were issued with a £10.75million fine, handed a suspended transfer ban on first-team activity and a nine-month ban on signing academy players for breaching the division's financial rules in relation to seven transfers.
Chelsea self-reported the issues after the sale of the club by Roman Abramovich to Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly. The new owners, BlueCo, then flagged the irregularities that saw them admit £47m had been paid to unregistered agents and third parties.
The transfers for Eden Hazard, Willian, Ramires and David Luiz were among the deals investigated.
Upon announcing the Blues' punishment, the Premier League said: "When considering the appropriate sanction, the Premier League Board noted that the club’s proactive self-reporting, admissions of breach and exceptional cooperation throughout the investigation acted as significant mitigating factors."
The Premier League charges against City include an allegation that the Manchester club, from December 2018, breached rules requiring them to 'cooperate with, and assist, the Premier League in its investigations, including by providing documents and information to the Premier League in the utmost good faith'.
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The hearing into City’s alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules concluded in December 2024. A 12-week tribunal took place but the independent commission has not yet made its conclusion public.
City were accused of 115 breaches of financial rules over a nine-year period. The club has maintained its innocence on all counts throughout the process.
The charges included 54 counts of failure to provide accurate financial information from 2009-10 to 2017-18, plus failure to provide accurate details for player and manager payments across the same period. It is claimed that City could be deducted 40 to 60 points if they are found guilty of some of the most serious charges against them.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire said: “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.”
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