Manchester City can expect to learn their fate over the Premier League charges they are facing next summer, according to a football finance expert.
City’s legal team are preparing for a hearing into the alleged 115 rule breaches that is set to take place later this year as the football world waits for a verdict that could shock the game. There has been impatience on all sides for a speedy resolution to charges levelled at the club in February 2023, particularly since Everton and Nottingham Forest have been punished for more recent – but, importantly, admitted and straightforward – breaches.
The extent and the complex and contested nature of City’s charges has necessitated a longer wait, and in the meantime Pep Guardiola and his players have won another two Premier League titles to become the first team to win four English league titles in consecutive years. With the hearing scheduled for next season, football finance expert Dr Dan Plumley believes the Premier League will want a resolution before the 2025/26 campaign.
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“I don’t think we’ll get a verdict until 2025 with a hearing scheduled for autumn, but from the Premier League’s point of view I think they’d like a resolution before the end of next season,” he told instantcasinos. “If there is a punishment, then the authorities would likely want it to be delivered at the start of the 2025/26 season, so I get the feeling that the summer of 2025 will be an important time for this process.”
City could face expulsion from the league is the most serious charges are proven, although the club maintain their innocence and were vindicated at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2020 when similar allegations made by UEFA were found to be lacking in evidence. The Blues were fined then for a lack of co-operation with UEFA’s investigation, and a similar outcome would seem appropriate if those were the only Premier League charges to stick.
“I don’t think the rumoured penalties of Manchester City facing expulsion or relegation from the Premier League are sensationalised at all,” said Plumley “Given the number and nature of allegations, if any of them are proven, then we could see significant penalties imposed on them.”