Manchester City’s potential punishment for if the club are found guilty of their FFP charges has been revealed by a football finance expert and it could be enough to see them relegated.
Manchester City would very much like to focus on what is happening on the pitch, with the club reaching the Carabao Cup final and partaking in a pursuit for the Premier League title.
However, the 130 Financial Fair Play charges facing City are still a big talking point, with a decision still yet to be made on whether or not they are guilty.
Former Liverpool chief Cristian Purslow recently revealed that Man City could have to wait longer than 12 months before receiving a verdict.
It remains to be seen what the punishment would be if City are found guilty, but a football finance expert has provided a rough idea.
Manchester City could face a 60-point deduction in the Premier League
According to Kieran Maguire, Man City could face a deduction of up to 60 points if the club are found guily of the FFP charges lodged against them.
Despite this, there is no risk of an automatic relegation to the bottom of the Football League pyramid, since no offence has been committed against the EFL.
"We've got well over 115 charges!" 🤯
— The Overlap (@WeAreTheOverlap) February 24, 2026
What’s actually happening with City’s charges? @KieranMaguire explains! 🤑 pic.twitter.com/zAooou9spX
Maguire told The Overlap: “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.
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,” Maguire continued.
“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?”
He added: “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.”
Maguire does not expect a long delay before a verdict is announced
While Purslow said it could take the Premier League longer than a year to reach a verdict, he also suggested it could be a much shorter timespan. Maguire certainly believes this to be the case, with the end of the saga almost in sight.
The football finance specialist has said everything should be resolved in the next few months and he has also revealed why coming to a decision has taken so long.
“[Judging] by the cases similar to a fraud case, I think we’re probably into the final reaches of getting a decision,” Maguire said. “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.”
