Why Man City relegation verdict has STILL not been announced

Carlo Garganese

Updated: 2 Apr 2025 03:53 CDT
4 min read

Pep Guardiola, Erling Haaland, Man City — © IMAGO

The verdict from Man City's trial over their alleged 130 breaches of Premier League financial rules was supposed to have been announced last month. So what is the hold-up?

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A verdict in the much-publicised case was expected in March, with City being charged with 130 alleged financial breaches.

Current ETV

Erling Haaland

F (C)

Man City

Erling Haaland

F (C)

Man City

ETV Range

€169.6M - €207.3M

An independent hearing has long since officially concluded following a four-year investigation conducted by UEFA.

The English media were unanimous in their belief that an announcement would be made during the March international break.

Why the hold-up?

But we are now into April and there is no sign of the judgement of whether Man City have been found guilty and, if so, what their punishment will be.

Football Finance expert Kieran Maguire believes that it is the lawyers holding up the verdict so they can maximise their earnings from the case.

"You've got to think about the lawyers - they're on the clock," he explained.

"If I'm on £3,000-£5,000 an hour, I'm not going to hurry a decision as to when the result is going to come out.

"There's certainly a desire from the Premier League for it to come out [before the end of the season], because otherwise, we've got a hangover over the summer in terms of where does this leave clubs.

"If it comes out in July, for example, and Manchester City are given a 40 or 50-point deduction, then presumably one of Leicester or Ipswich will be saying, 'Well, if that had come out earlier, then we would have avoided relegation' - so, therefore, they might be putting in a legal case."

© IMAGO - Man City could be relegated from the Premier League if they are found guilty

Maguire has previously stated that if City are found guilty then there is a very real chance that they will be relegated from the Premier League.

Man City have denied any wrongdoing, but the club have been accused of failing to provide accurate financial information from 2009 to 2018, and failing to co-operate from 2018 to 2023.

City have won eight Premier League titles and 24 trophies in total since the Abu Dhabi United Group purchased the club in 2008, spending over €2.5 billion on new players in the process.

Manchester City's reported financial breaches

Breach	Number of Charges
Failure to provide accurate and up-to-date financial information (2009-2018)	54
Failure to provide accurate financial reports for player and manager compensation (2009-2018)	14
Failure to comply with UEFA's regulations, including Financial Fair Play Regulations	5
Breaching Premier League Profitability and Sustainability regulations (2015-2018)	7
Failure to co-operate with Premier League investigations (2018-2023)	35

City currently are fifth in the Premier League with nine games remaining.

They are also still in the FA Cup.