LONDON – The English Premier League announced a statement regarding the accusations toward Manchester City football club, which is suspected of breaking more than 100 financial rules across nine seasons.
The EPL organisation has passed this case to an independent committee to conduct a trial.
UK media reported that the Cities is accused for a total of 115 charges, which could be seriously punished if they are found guilty, including being relegated from the English top tier league.
Football Leaks in November 2018 exposed that Manchester City and certain clubs are avoiding the UEFA Financial Fair Play policy.
The EPL started their investigation on the dominant club a month after that, their direction was from season 2009 to 2018, including City’s violation of the league’s FFP, such as failure to provide the club’s income, operation fees, sponsorships and other information.
Investigation Across 9 Seasons
In March 2019, UEFA announced that Manchester City was suspected of breaching their FFP.
In February 2020, they suspended the club from participating in European competition for two seasons, plus a penalty of 30 million Euros.
The Cities performed an appeal immediately and succeeded in July, cancelled the suspension and reduced the penalty to 10 million.
However, despite UEFA, the Premier League is still conducting their investigation until their result is announced today.
The EPL accused Man City for not cooperating and assisting in the investigation since December 2018, while not providing related documents or information with their best sincerity.
The independent committee who conducts a trial will select its members by the president himself. The final result of the trial will be published on the Premier League official website.
Possible Punishments: Relegation
Will the trial lead to the falling to the dominating English giant club?
Since they were bought over by the Abu Dhabi corporation in 2008, Manchester City had won six EPL titles, including four in the last five seasons.
The Blues is currently in second place of the season 2022/23, five points behind Arsenal with one more game played.
They are facing three possible punishments regarding the trial of the EPL committee.
The defending champion might be deducted their points from the current league standings, or taking away their previous league titles, or for the worst, being relegated from the Premier League.
If they were deprived of their past championships, Liverpool and Manchester United would be the beneficiaries, as they were the runners-up across those seasons when City won.
Lesson from Juventus
Manchester City is not the only European giant club which is being investigated or punished this season.
Juventus had been deducted for 15 points from the Italian Serie A season 2022/23 table due to the club’s financial fraud.
This makes Le Zebre now in thirteenth place with only 23 points, 16 points behind number four Lazio who is the last seat to participate in the Champions League next season.
In middle of 2006, Juventus was punished to relegate to the second tier league after the Calciopoli incident, plus deprived them of their past two Serie A titles.
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