All sanction options on the table if Man City are found guilty of financial breaches, says football finance guru.
There are “limitless” possibilities for sanctions imposed against Manchester City, should the club be found guilty of multiple and sustained financial breaches of English Premier League (EPL) rules. That’s the view of football finance expert, Kieran Maguire, who said the commission involved with investigating the allegations of over 100 potential breaches of fiscal rules have “carte blanche” to set a commensurate punishment if found guilty. Following the announcement of charges, the odds on manager Pep Guardiola becoming the next Premier League boss to depart shortened fast. The Spaniard is now the 5/1 second favourite with Paddy Power, as harsh ramifications – like relegation to the Championship – could force him to resign. This operator is well-versed in such novelty markets, but the manager market is one of the more popular prop bets, so odds movements on such a liquid market must be respected.
City have been hit with an unprecedented 115 breaches of financial regulations set by the EPL over a 14-season period. It follows a four-year investigation by EPL officials into the financial conduct of the club. Although there is no formal timeframe confirmed for a hearing surrounding these charges, even if City is found guilty of 50% or more of them, calls for severe punishments are sure to escalate.
When quizzed on the Monday Night Club by BBC Radio 5 Live, Maguire said the spectrum of potential penalties for City could range from a slap-on-the-wrist “fine” through to being “stripped of titles” and even “expelled” from the top-flight of English football.
What’s happened to clubs charged with similar financial irregularities?
West London club Queens Park Rangers were found guilty of breaching Financial Fair Play (FFP) spending rules en-route to securing promotion to the EPL in the 2013/14 season. The Hoops’ wage bill was a staggering 195% of their turnover, which was £38.6m for that year. A panel of arbitration adjudged the fine of approximately £42m to be proportionate and fair, while the club was also hit with a transfer embargo, although this would only last the January transfer window for the 2018/19 season.
What happened to Glasgow Rangers was a rather more serious case in point. In February 2012, the blue half of Glasgow was in mourning after the club entered administration. It was promptly liquidated after a CVA proposal to rescue the club was thrown out. A string of financial losses and unsettled tax bills weighed heavily on the Rangers balance sheet. Owner David Murray sold his majority shareholding in the club to businessman, Craig Whyte, who was later found to be an unfit and improper person to run a football club in the eyes of the Scottish FA.
With Whyte buying Murray’s shares for just £1, he leveraged almost £27m against future season ticket sales to cover the debts to Lloyds Banking Group. However, the club’s administrators found that not a single penny was invested by Whyte into the club. Rangers and the club’s assets were sold on to Sevco Scotland Ltd, with the club forced to build their way back up the Scottish football pyramid from League Two.
The ‘Calciopoli’ match-fixing scandal involving Juventus was another seismic shift in a country’s football landscape. Juve were found guilty and promptly relegated to Serie B for the 2006/07 season. City has not been hit with similar charges to Juventus, but its wrongdoings covered just two seasons, compared with the EPL’s charges against City that span a staggering 14 campaigns.
More recently, Juventus has entered hot water with the Italian authorities, this time relating to their finances. The Federal Court of Appeal ruled that Juve had a string of capital gains violations, docking them 15 points for this season and banning certain individuals from involvement in Italian football for a two-to-two-and-a-half-year period.
A similar points penalty for City would almost certainly hand the Premier League title on a plate to Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, who have stormed to the top of the table and lead the way by five points with a game in-hand.
