Days after an independent commission found Manchester City guilty on 114 of 115 Premier League financial charges, Kieran Maguire has told BBC Radio Merseyside that Everton and other clubs may now have an opening to go after City on the pitch, not just in principle.

The verdict, first reported on 25 September 2026 and confirmed by the Premier League four days later, covers nine seasons from 2009-10 to 2017-18. The commission found that City used sham commercial contracts to inflate revenues by more than £900m, with the bulk of that sum categorised as disguised owner funding from Abu Dhabi.

City continues to deny wrongdoing and is expected to appeal. No sanctions have been handed down.

Proving damage on the pitch

Maguire’s point is narrow and specific: proving City broke the rules is only the first step. The second, harder step is proving a competing club was damaged on the pitch as a direct result.

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“If you have been disadvantaged in the sense that your league position, because you got two pastings from City in that season, and the clubs around you picked up one or two points, then there is a potential case,” he told BBC Radio Merseyside.

A viable claim would require showing that defeats to City in a breach year, combined with points picked up by rivals, pushed a club into a materially worse finish. Maguire described it as “a tough test,” and emphasised that the sanctions phase and City’s appeal have yet to play out.

Everton’s own ledger

Everton know the regulatory framework at close range. The club was docked 10 points by an independent commission on 17 November 2023 after its profit and sustainability calculation came in at a £124.5m loss, £19.5m over the £105m threshold. It was the largest single points deduction in Premier League history, and the first under the PSR rules.

That sanction was reduced to six points on 26 February 2024 after an appeals commission found legal errors in the original ruling, including a failure to weigh available benchmarks such as EFL sanction guidelines. A separate case the same season added a further two points.

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Nottingham Forest, charged in the same cycle, were deducted four points in March 2024 after admitting their own PSR breach.

Other clubs taking legal advice

Everton would not be acting alone. BBC Sport has reported that several Premier League clubs have already sought legal advice about pursuing compensation connected to the case, though any claim would need to establish that City’s conduct caused specific financial loss, not just a shift in the table.

Maguire has also set out what he expects City’s own sanction to look like. He told Football365 that, applying the Everton and Forest formula at scale, sanctions should land in the region of 50 to 60 points plus a fine of £50m-£60m, and warned that anything above 70 points would amount to relegation.

City’s appeal has to be lodged by Friday and will go to a new three-person panel, with the club also retaining the option of challenging the process itself in England’s High Court. CEO Ferran Soriano has said the dispute could run for years.

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