Alan Brazil says he is hearing 60. He also says it could be nonsense.
The talkSPORT presenter put a number on air on Wednesday for the sanction Manchester City could face after being found guilty of nearly all of their Premier League financial charges.
“I’m hearing a 60-point deduction, which will please people and still give City a chance of surviving,” Brazil said.
He had no idea when any such punishment would actually land.
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“I don’t know whether it’s this season. Is it next season?”
Brazil then undercut his own tip in the next breath, warning listeners that what he had been told could simply be “nonsense”.
McCoist: a lot of people wouldn’t think that’s enough
Co-host Ally McCoist pushed back on the idea that 60 would settle the argument among supporters outside Manchester.
“I think a lot of people wouldn’t think that’s enough,” McCoist said.
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He added that a deduction on that scale would not necessarily send the club down.
“I’m not sure it would guarantee [relegation]. It would make it a challenge, put it that way.”
Guilty on 114 of 115 charges
On 29 September the Premier League confirmed that an independent commission had found Manchester City guilty of 114 of the 115 financial charges filed against the club in February 2023.
The commission concluded City had used “sham contracts” to inflate revenues and reduce costs by around £900m between 2009 and 2018, and had failed to co-operate with the league’s investigation.
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City said they were “disappointed and surprised” by the opinion and vowed to be “relentless” in pursuing an appeal.
Hearing expected before Christmas
The deadline to appeal was Friday 2 October. The appeal goes before a new three-person independent commission under section W of Premier League rules, separate from the panel that delivered the guilty verdict.
A fast-track procedure added to the Premier League handbook this season would see an appeal hearing within 12 weeks of lodging and a decision within 30 days of the hearing concluding. Sky Sports reporter Kaveh Solhekol has said City are expected to argue the new rules should not apply retroactively to a case that pre-dates them.
“An appeal has to be heard pretty quickly and it would mean that we would have the hearing before Christmas and then we would have the judgement in January,” Solhekol said.
A separate sanctions hearing before the original three-person panel is expected within the next couple of months, Solhekol added, with any penalty likely to be announced before the end of the current season.
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