Judgment Day: What the Guilty Verdict Means for Manchester City

After a long series of investigations, Manchester City was finally found guilty of over 110 charges centered on a number of financial violations. For years, fans waited to see whether one of the sport’s richest clubs would face any consequences.

While a guilty verdict feels like a strong first step, the possibility that City might receive a slap on the wrist hangs over any reaction.

Manchester City’s ownership group spent over two decades building a footballing juggernaut from scratch. Dropping an untold amount of money into the club, the UAE-tied group not only bought world-class players but also built a thriving academy.

From the start, their willingness to spend in the manner they did raised certain questions. Like their French counterparts at PSG, many accused them of financial manipulation through their acquisitions. However, City Group’s ambitions never stopped within English borders; their footballing empire stretched the globe as City became a truly international institution.

The charges that Manchester City were found guilty of ranged from overvaluing sponsorship numbers to failing to cooperate with the Premier League. While the English FA and Premier League dealt with financial violations in the past, this case will require a sentencing unlike anything the sport has seen before. If they opt for a lighter punishment, the entire footballing world may fall apart.

Being found guilty of these charges is one thing, but dealing out consequences is something else entirely.

With the entire World watching, all the pressure falls on English football.

Adam Curtis’ fantastic docuseries Hypernormalisation argues that, unable to cope with a falling World, we can’t imagine a better situation. An addition to this theory may lie in the desire to prove this notion wrong.

Following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the desire to punish the banks and regulators who allowed the crash to happen became a global movement. When nothing changed, and no one faced real consequences, one could argue it broke the collective will. A retreat began to a sort of idea that we need to hyperfocus on punishment without the act itself.  

Arrigo Sacchi once noted that football is the most important thing of everything that is not important. A fundamental stitch in the fabric of society, football serves as a third space. Football, and sports in general, act as a surrogate for community, making it a vital part of our existence. 

Football’s importance, paired with a society devoid of hope for real change, has sparked a deserved firestorm over Manchester City. In fact, the nakedness with which the club operated for almost two decades led to this moment.

City, Monaco, Newcastle and PSG are all clubs that act as vessels for states that took the Abramovich model to a new level. Sportswashing in this manner has become embedded in the fabric of every league, to the point where countries worry about international relations when punishing these giants. This meshing of the two worlds is no accident, but the result of the club’s integration into a local area.

Like the Kawhi Leonard scandal in the NBA, a fear underlies any discussion of potential punishments for City. After almost two decades of seeing a world without any hope of holding people accountable, people have resigned themselves to not seeing justice. If City skates away without any real scarring, why can’t every club on Earth just follow their model?

City being found guilty of these charges, especially after many gave up on it, awakened a belief that maybe things will be different.

Perhaps decades of empty promises can be made up for in one ruling, or acceptance of modern existence will happen.

Any punishment for City necessitates a discussion on how far the Premier League is willing to go. Given that there is no precedent for charges at this level, the entire English footballing structure will be under the sport’s microscope.

A points deduction feels almost certain, along with a substantial fine. The real discussion is how many points to deduct. 

Club statement. 🔗 https://t.co/yrJ8Z0A52Y https://t.co/0NP2k33JT9

— Manchester City (@ManCity) September 29, 2026

In previous cases where clubs lied about their finances in this manner, punishments ranged from eight points for Everton to ten for Juventus. However, neither club operated in this way or to this extent. It’s like comparing a random shoplifter to Al Capone.

Relegation seems the proper punishment, whether with an insurmountable points deduction or a straight relegation. Sending them to the Championship will lead to a talent exodus, but the league may need something like that as a form of a reset.

If the league is concerned about what may happen to City in the long term, a relegation doesn’t kill them for more than a few seasons.

With a slew of lawsuits already announced, City’s issues extend beyond any sort of pure points punishment. Almost any club, manager, or even player that finished below City has a case to argue that the club’s actions cost them. Even though a full state backs them, at some point, it feels likely that they will cut bait with a club drowning in lawsuits.

As mentioned earlier, failing to act on City’s charges will show the rest of the league that you can openly cheat without facing the music. Opening that possibility means the Prem will become like post-USSR Russia; rules don’t really exist as everyone tries to accumulate power. With a league already operating within a bubble, a hyper-capitalized market like this will lead to a crash unlike anything the sport has yet seen.

The Prem enters these next few months under pressure unlike any other league has seen, outside Serie A. Should the Italian league serve as an omen, the relegation of such a marquee team will hurt, but won’t kill the league.

When the news of City’s guilty verdicts broke, the footballing world felt something new. Hope that in at least one aspect of their lives, justice would prevail.

Everything now lies in the Prem’s court: either prove to everyone that they care about the sport, or resign themselves to the hope that nothing gets better.