Man City's rivals want their titles wiped and a ban that lasts years

Manchester City have not dropped a single point this season. Five games, five wins, top of the table.

And yet the people who run English football's other clubs are now openly talking about a Premier League without them.

On Wednesday, Sky Sports reported that rival clubs do not expect City to be in the Premier League next season if their appeal fails. A day earlier, BBC Sport revealed what several of those clubs want on top of that. Titles taken away. Transfer bans. A punishment that lasts years, not months.

What did Man City actually do?

At the end of September, an independent commission found City guilty of 114 of the 115 charges the Premier League brought against them. The only one thrown out was a single charge about failing to cooperate with the investigation.

The case covers nine seasons, from 2009-10 to 2017-18. The commission found City used "sham" commercial deals to make the club look richer than it was.

The heart of it is sponsorship money. Of nearly £950 million booked as income from Abu Dhabi sponsors, only £119.25 million came from the sponsors themselves, according to the findings reported by Al Jazeera. The other £830.69 million came from Abu Dhabi United Group, the club's owner since 2008.

In plain terms, the owner was pouring in money and dressing it up as sponsorship, so City could spend big while appearing to stay inside the rules.

Why is this bigger than a normal rule-breaking case?

Because the commission said it changed who won things.

Sky Sports reports the panel concluded the rule-breaking "distorted the competition". In the same nine seasons, City won three Premier League titles.

It also said something every City fan will struggle to read. According to the commission, some club witnesses "knowingly gave untrue and dishonest evidence".

That finding is one reason the Solicitors Regulation Authority is now reviewing the case, as BBC Sport reported.

Photo: Stuart Grout / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Which titles could City lose?

The three league titles from that period are 2011-12, 2013-14 and 2017-18.

The first is one of the most famous in football history. Sergio Agüero scored at 93 minutes and 20 seconds against QPR to snatch it from Manchester United on the final day. Some fans called it destiny. Now rivals want it gone from the record books.

One senior club source told BBC Sport that City should be stripped of those titles. There is "no great rush" to hand them to anyone else. The idea is to leave them vacant.

The same source went further. They said the league's credibility would be undermined if City were allowed to keep the eight major trophies they won during the years they broke the rules.

Not every club agrees. BBC Sport was previously told there was little appetite for stripping titles, so this is a live fight inside the league, not a settled plan.

What punishment do rival clubs want?

The most striking detail in the BBC report is how little faith clubs have in a simple points deduction.

At least four Premier League boardrooms believe one big deduction that sends City down for a single season would not be enough. One source called that kind of punishment a "bump in the road".

Instead, figures inside the league want:

• A points deduction split across several seasons
• Transfer bans stretching over more than one window
• A tariff system that recalculates where clubs would have finished, so rivals can claim compensation

On the transfer point, one source said it would be "bizarre, almost obtuse" if City were free to buy players in January while the case is still running.

Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham have also reserved the right to take their own legal action over lost prize money and Champions League places.

How bad could it really get?

The rulebook gives the commission a huge range. Penalties can run from a reprimand and a fine all the way to points deductions and, at the far end, expulsion from the Premier League.

For scale, look at Everton. They broke the spending rules once and were handed a 10-point deduction in 2023-24, which was cut to six on appeal, Sky Sports notes. City were found guilty across nine seasons.

That gap is why talk of relegation is no longer a wind-up from rival fans. It is being discussed in boardrooms.

Jamie Carragher was blunt on Sky. He said City's titles "should be taken off their list" and described the case as a "stain that will be there for the next 10 years".

What do City say?

City deny everything and have already fought back.

The club lodged its appeal at 7pm on Thursday 1 October. Its statement said the commission's opinion "contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe".

City also repeated a line they have used since the charges arrived in February 2023, that "a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists" to prove their innocence.

Chief executive Ferran Soriano went further. "The whole case against us is based on a single false accusation," he said, insisting the owner's personal money was never secretly put into the club.

Reports suggest City's appeal may argue the money came from Abu Dhabi government sources rather than the owner. Lawyers on both sides are already arguing over whether that line helps City or hurts them.

When will we know the punishment?

Not this month.

The appeal goes to an independent three-person board, and one member must have held judicial office. The hearing should happen within 12 weeks, with a decision due within 30 days of it ending, according to the published process.

Sky Sports expects the appeal hearing before Christmas, but the wider dispute could run into 2027. Rival clubs told the BBC they feel "in the dark" about the timetable.

Sanctions are a separate step. The same three-person panel that heard the evidence will decide them, and the Premier League will make its own submissions on what it wants.

Photo: FYI2023 / Wikimedia Commons, CC0

What happens on the pitch now?

City have spent a three-week international break away from the noise. Their first league game since the verdict is at Anfield on Sunday 11 October, kicking off at 4.30pm UK time. Liverpool fans have waited a long time for this moment, and their club is one of the four that reserved the right to sue.

The Times reports Enzo Maresca will hold a private meeting with his squad before the trip. A Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain follows in midweek.

It is a strange position for any team. On the field they are perfect, five wins from five. Off it, they are fighting for the right to exist in the same league next season.

Whatever lawyers decide later, Sunday at Anfield will be the first real test of how English football feels about City now. Football fans have already had one emotional week, with Messi bowing out for Argentina in tears. City's could be just as loud for very different reasons.

So will City really be thrown out?

Nobody can say for sure until the appeal and the sanctions hearing are done. But the direction of travel has changed completely.

A year ago, the debate was whether City would be found guilty at all. Now they have been, on 114 counts, and the clubs around them are no longer asking if City should be punished. They are arguing over how many years it should last.

For a club that won everything in sight for a decade, that is the most stunning turnaround of all. The champions of the Premier League era are now the case the whole league will be judged by.