Manchester City's long-running battle with the Premier League has reached its most significant moment yet. Reports in England say the independent commission hearing the club's financial case has found City guilty of the overwhelming majority of the charges against them, more than three years after the Premier League first announced its case. It is a potentially historic ruling for English football, but it does not mean City have already been relegated, deducted points or stripped of their previous titles.
Manchester City continue to deny wrongdoing, while the full written judgment has not yet been made public and no final punishment has been announced. An appeal is expected, meaning the legal process could continue for some time before the consequences become clear. For now, the biggest questions concern exactly what the commission has decided, what sanctions are available to the Premier League and whether the case could ultimately threaten City's place in the competition.
What is the Manchester City 115 charges verdict?
The Premier League originally charged Manchester City in February 2023 with more than 100 alleged breaches of its financial regulations following a four-year investigation. The case quickly became known as the "115 charges", although the technical number of disciplinary counts has subsequently been reported differently after amendments and the way individual alleged breaches were divided.
The allegations cover a period stretching from the 2009/10 season into the 2022/23 campaign and fall into several categories. The most serious concern whether City provided accurate financial information about their revenue, including sponsorship income, and whether complete details of payments to managers and players were disclosed. Other charges concern compliance with UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations, the Premier League's profitability and sustainability rules and the club's obligation to cooperate with the league's investigation.
City have denied the allegations throughout the process. The independent commission began hearing the case behind closed doors in September 2024 and concluded the main proceedings later that year, after which English football entered a lengthy wait for its decision.
Reports on September 25, 2026 indicated that the commission had found against City on almost all of the major counts. The Times reported a guilty finding on 114 of the original 115 charges, while other reports have described the outcome in terms of the overwhelming majority of the Premier League's case being upheld. Until the commission's complete written judgment is published, however, the exact findings on every individual charge and the reasoning behind them need to be treated carefully.
What happens to Manchester City now?
The next stage is expected to be an appeal by Manchester City, rather than the immediate imposition of whatever punishment is being discussed on social media. Under Premier League rules, decisions of an independent commission can be challenged before an Appeal Board, which would consider the grounds on which City disputes the original ruling and determine whether the findings should be upheld, overturned or varied.
That process is important because a reported guilty verdict and a final enforceable outcome are not necessarily the same thing. City have fought the Premier League's case through several legal stages already and have consistently maintained that the evidence supports their position, so there is little reason to expect the club to accept such a significant decision without exhausting the available avenues of challenge.
The appeal would not simply mean replaying the entire hearing from the beginning. There are rules governing the grounds on which a commission decision can be challenged and circumstances in which new evidence can be introduced, while the Appeal Board has its own powers when reviewing the original findings. The precise timetable will become clearer once the written judgment and City's formal response are available.
This is also why attaching a specific points deduction or other punishment to the verdict remains premature. The disciplinary process first has to establish which breaches ultimately stand, after which the sanctions and any challenges to them can determine what actually happens to Manchester City on the pitch.
Could Manchester City be relegated?
Relegation is among the possible consequences of a case this serious, but Manchester City have not been relegated and there is currently no confirmed points deduction that would send them down. The commission has broad sanctioning powers if breaches are ultimately upheld, potentially ranging from financial penalties to points deductions and, at the most severe end, suspension or expulsion from the Premier League.
A sufficiently large points deduction could obviously result in relegation through the league table. There has been widespread speculation about possible deductions of 30, 60, 100 points or even more, but there is no established formula that allows those figures to be calculated reliably from the charges. City's case is also substantially different from recent profitability and sustainability cases involving clubs such as Everton and Nottingham Forest because it covers a much wider set of alleged breaches over a far longer period.
Expulsion would create an additional complication because the Premier League and the English Football League are separate organisations. City could not necessarily be treated as though they had simply finished 18th and automatically dropped into the Championship, meaning an extreme sanction could raise questions about where the club would actually play and what arrangements would be required with the EFL.
The realistic position at this stage is therefore that relegation is possible within the range of severe sporting consequences, rather than something that has already been ordered. Any definitive claim about City's division next season would go beyond what has actually been decided.
Could Manchester City be stripped of Premier League titles?
The period covered by the case overlaps with the beginning of Manchester City's transformation into the dominant force of the Premier League era. City won their first league championship under Sheikh Mansour's ownership in 2011/12 and went on to collect multiple titles during the wider period scrutinised by the Premier League, which inevitably raises the question of whether historical trophies could be removed.
There is currently no decision stripping City of any Premier League title, and doing so would create considerably more complexity than simply deleting the club's name from the record books. Retrospectively changing league tables could affect runners-up, European qualification, prize money and relegation positions from seasons completed many years ago, potentially creating further legal and financial disputes between clubs.
It is also important to distinguish between a punishment imposed on Manchester City now and a decision to rewrite previous competitions. A large points deduction, fine or even expulsion would not automatically mean that earlier championships were removed, because retrospective title stripping would require its own clear disciplinary basis and consequences.
Claims that Manchester United, Liverpool or another club would automatically inherit additional Premier League titles are therefore premature. Until the commission's sanction and reasoning are known, there is no basis for treating historical league tables as though they have already been changed.
Could other Premier League clubs sue Manchester City?
Potential compensation claims could become one of the most complicated consequences if serious findings against City survive the appeals process. Rival clubs could argue that financial rule breaches caused them measurable losses, whether through missing Champions League qualification, receiving less prize money, losing a league position or suffering another financial consequence linked to City's participation.
Proving such a claim would be considerably harder than simply pointing to where a club finished in the table. A claimant would need to establish the loss it suffered, demonstrate a sufficient connection between that loss and the breaches ultimately upheld against City and then persuade the relevant legal or disciplinary body of the appropriate compensation.
The scale and duration of the allegations nevertheless mean the possibility cannot be dismissed. If the final judgment establishes serious breaches across multiple seasons, the Premier League's own punishment may settle only one part of the dispute, with further arguments potentially developing between City and clubs that believe they were financially disadvantaged.
Why has the Manchester City case taken so long?
The origins of the case stretch back to 2018, when German publication Der Spiegel reported on internal Manchester City documents obtained through the Football Leaks investigation. UEFA subsequently investigated the club and in 2020 imposed a two-year ban from European competition, but City successfully appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. CAS overturned the principal findings and removed the Champions League ban, although the club was fined €10 million for failing to cooperate with UEFA's investigation.
The Premier League conducted its own investigation separately and continued examining City's finances after the UEFA case had ended. Disputes involving documents, jurisdiction and procedure contributed to the length of the investigation before the league finally announced its charges in February 2023, almost five years after the original Football Leaks reporting.
The independent commission process added another lengthy stage because the scale of the evidence required months of private hearings and consideration. Confidentiality has remained a defining feature of proceedings, which also explains why information about the latest decision has emerged through media reports before the publication of the commission's full judgment.
When will we know Manchester City's punishment?
There is no confirmed date for a final outcome, and the expected appeal means the case could continue even after the commission publishes its written decision. The immediate things to watch are the full judgment, Manchester City's formal response and confirmation of the next stage of proceedings, because those documents should establish much more clearly which allegations were upheld and how the club intends to challenge them.
Only then will the biggest sporting questions begin to have reliable answers. A points deduction, fine, relegation or another severe sanction remains possible depending on the final findings and the commission's powers, but none should currently be presented as an accomplished fact.
The significance of the reported verdict is nevertheless enormous. After years of investigation, legal challenges and a private hearing, an independent commission is reported to have upheld the overwhelming majority of the Premier League's case against Manchester City. The "115 charges" saga may finally have reached its verdict, but the battle over what that verdict means for City's future is likely to continue.
Published by Patrick Jane
26.09.2026