There is no automatic exit route for Haaland.

The 26-year-old signed a nine-and-a-half-year deal in January 2025 that runs until 2034, reported to be worth around £260m and to pay a basic salary of £500,000 a week. The Premier League case was already active when the contract was drawn up. No trigger was written into it.

TEAMtalk quoted a source at the club as saying “no such clauses exist, either for Haaland or other members of the squad”, a categorical line to rumours that had spread in the hours after the ruling.

Football365 framed the club’s position as a rejection of what it called a “doomsday scenario”, with senior figures at the Etihad said to be unwilling even to discuss relegation as an outcome.

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The verdict, and the appeal to come

The Premier League brought 115 charges in February 2023. On Friday 25 September, an independent commission ruled against Manchester City on 114 of them, according to The Athletic and Reuters. The charges cover the seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18.

No punishment has been announced. beIN Sports notes it “would therefore be premature to state that Manchester City will have points deducted, be relegated or be stripped of titles”, and the club intends to appeal. The written decision has not been published.

Enzo Maresca, appointed on 29 June 2026 as Pep Guardiola’s successor, inherits both the dressing room and the fallout.

Barcelona named for 2027

The vacuum has already pulled Haaland’s name into Spain. Transfer reporter Indykaila wrote that “Manchester City’s Erling Haaland move to @FCBarcelona in 2027 is ON according to sources in Barcelona”.

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Former Barcelona midfielder Gaizka Mendieta put an eventual price on any move, saying a fee would be “certainly not below a hundred million”.

Stefan Borson, a former financial advisor to Manchester City, warned that sporting sanctions would test the loyalty of the squad.

“I don’t think it’s unlikely that players will be selfish and look for their own careers, and you would expect them to do so.”

The ‘key to the door’

Haaland’s agent Rafaela Pimenta has long argued that players should retain leverage over their own future. She told Goal that “a player must be able to make his own decisions regarding his career and his life”, a principle she describes as the “key to the door”.

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That principle did not translate into an automatic escape route in the January 2025 agreement. Reports do suggest the striker’s transfer value tapers as the deal approaches 2030, a mechanism that could tilt any future negotiation his way.

For now the position is fixed on paper: a contract that runs until 2034, no relegation clause, no sanction from the commission, and an appeal to file.

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