Manchester City have 14 days from the ruling to submit their appeal, according to Yahoo Sports, which means the club’s lawyers must have their filing ready by October 9. Until that appeal is heard and decided, no points can be deducted, no fine can be imposed and no title can be taken back.
“The guilty verdict comes with no punishment attached, at least for now,” Euro Weekly News reported.
The finding, reported on 25 September, found the club guilty on all but one of the 115 charges the Premier League brought in February 2023. The independent panel had heard evidence from September to December 2024 and taken nearly two years to reach its conclusion.
A different panel takes over
The appeal will be heard by a fresh three-person board, none of whom sat on the original commission. The chair must have held judicial office. The panel’s remit is narrow: it can only overturn the verdict on grounds such as serious procedural unfairness, not re-argue the case from scratch.
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Yahoo reports that the appeal is expected to run no more than five days as a single block, with Premier League rules capping the process at 12 weeks from the date the appeal is filed. Proceedings will be held in private.
Manchester City’s official position, issued after the verdict was reported, remained defiant.
“The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements to be completed, and subject to strict confidentiality,” the club said.
“The club have diligently respected due process for eight years on the basis that the Premier League board and executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from partisan influence.”
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No route to Lausanne this time
In 2020, when UEFA banned Manchester City from the Champions League over financial fair play breaches, the club successfully overturned that ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. That escape route is closed for this case. The Premier League’s rulebook does not permit further escalation to CAS, meaning the three-person appeal board’s decision is the final word.
If City lodge on October 9 and the appeal runs its full 12-week course, the earliest the process could conclude is January 2027. A separate hearing then has to decide the actual punishment.
Points, a fine, or worse
Football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire told Euro Weekly the deduction could reach “somewhere in the region of 60 to 100 points,” which would “effectively guarantee relegation out of the Premier League.”
Al Jazeera’s explainer lays out the full menu: from a moderate transfer ban up to expulsion from the top flight. Premier League titles won during the years covered by the charges, from 2009 to 2018, could in principle be stripped, along with domestic cups.
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Manchester City could therefore play out the 2026-27 season without a single point subtracted. No written judgment has yet been published, no sanctions hearing has been scheduled, and City’s appeal is not on the record until it is filed.
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