The most striking voice on what Manchester City’s guilty verdict actually means has not come from a rival club or a Premier League insider. It has come from a lawyer who once sat inside the club’s own financial operation.
Stefan Borson, who worked as a financial adviser to Manchester City between 2002 and 2007, has told talkSPORT that the club “are in very, very serious trouble” after an independent commission found the club guilty on 114 of 115 charges related to breaches of the league’s financial regulations between 2009 and 2018.
The decision was reached on 25 September 2026. The Premier League has not yet published the ruling, and no sanction has been announced.
The Chelsea comparison is the point
Borson’s core argument is not that City lost. It is why the sentencing commission is now likely to hit them so hard.
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Chelsea, faced with their own set of financial breaches, took a different route. They co-operated with the Premier League and the FA, admitted parts of the case, and reached a negotiated deal.
“Chelsea did a wonderful job in negotiating a deal with the Premier League and ended up with an incredibly lenient approach,” Borson told talkSPORT, as quoted by Goal.
“They did a very similar thing with the FA. We are not in this situation with Manchester City. Manchester City have denied everything all the way through.”
Co-operation is treated as a mitigating factor when a regulator sets punishment. City’s total denial removes that lever before the sentencing commission has even begun its work.
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An appeal that is unlikely to change the facts
The club is expected to appeal. Both parties have 14 days from the decision to lodge one, and the case cannot be taken to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which usually stretches such disputes into years.
talkSPORT’s Alex Crook, who set out the timetable, expects a fast turnaround.
“Crucially, they can’t go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, so this can’t drag on for months and years. I think we could end up with quite a quick resolution,” Crook said.
A separate appeals commission will hear the case. If City lose again, their remaining route is the UK courts under the Arbitration Act 1996.
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Borson does not believe an appeal will overturn the substance of the findings.
“An appeal on the basis of the facts is very unlikely to succeed,” he said, according to TeamTalk’s coverage of his talkSPORT interview.
The 500-to-700-page document that is still to come
Once the appeal process is complete, the independent commission’s full written decision is expected to be published. Borson referred to it as running to “five, six, 700 pages” of detailed findings on breaches dating back to the 2009-10 season.
Under Premier League regulations, the panel setting the punishment can impose a fine, a points deduction, transfer restrictions, expulsion from the competition, or the annulment of titles won during the period covered by the charges.
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Borson has warned that the sanction could reach what he called the “nuclear option” of relegation from the Premier League.
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