Chelsea’s recent punishment — a £10 million fine, a suspended transfer ban, and an immediate nine-month academy ban for secret payments spanning 2011 to 2022 — has reopened the most consequential legal argument in English football: how should Manchester City expect to be treated if they are found guilty of their 115 charges?
Former City financial adviser Stefan Borson told Football Insider this week that City will argue the Chelsea precedent should apply to their case, specifically that financial misconduct of this type should attract fines rather than sporting sanctions like points deductions. The key argument, Borson explained, is that Chelsea avoided any on-pitch punishment despite their offences overlapping in nature and scale with what City are alleged to have done.
An independent commission hearing ran for twelve weeks, ending in December 2024, but more than fourteen months on there has been no verdict. The silence has drawn sharp criticism from multiple quarters, most notably La Liga president Javier Tebas, who told the Financial Times Business of Football Summit that City effectively enjoy “impunity” compared to clubs in other leagues who are penalised swiftly for similar rule-breaking.
Finance expert Kieran Maguire has suggested that if City are found guilty of the more serious charges, a points deduction of between 40 and 60 points is mathematically possible based on scaling from Everton and Nottingham Forest’s prior penalties. However, Borson himself has challenged that logic, noting there is no real precedent for sustained systemic breaches of this nature and that a simple multiplication of smaller penalties would not reflect how such cases are adjudicated.
Manchester United executives are reportedly “convinced” City will be cleared of the most serious charges — a belief that has significant financial implications, since United have reportedly factored in bearing a share of the £40 million legal costs if the Premier League does not prevail. A verdict is now expected before the start of this summer’s World Cup in June. City, for their part, have consistently denied every allegation across the nine-year period under scrutiny, from 2009 to 2018.
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