Manchester City are unlikely to be relegated from the Premier League in light of their alleged breaches of financial rules.
As per The Athletic, the Premier League have charged City with rule breaches between 2009 and 2018. The current league Champions have also reportedly been accused of ‘failing to cooperate’ with the investigation. Given then season’s under investigation, such matters are clearly of great interest to Liverpool.
As a result of their alleged misconduct, it’s claimed that the possible sanctions under rule W.51 of the Premier League’s handbook include ‘expulsion’ from the league.
To get an idea of the likelihood of such a punishment, The Athletic asked James Hill. Hill is quoted as being a legal director specialising in sports regulatory matters at Onside Law. Asked on the possibility of City’s expulsion from the league specifically though, Hill expressed doubt that such a step would be taken.
“The Premier League will want to see justice done but the primary interest of the Premier League is ensuring it has the most attractive product involving the best teams and players,” he said.
“Without knowing the details of the alleged breaches, I’d therefore query whether the Premier League is realistically going to push for Manchester City to be expelled. It seems unlikely.”
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Obviously, a Premier League without Manchester City is something that would appeal to Liverpool. The likes of owners FSG and Jurgen Klopp have railed against the perceived limitless spending of the club for years.
To see them suitably punished for their actions would go down extremely well at Anfield.
However, judging from this report, that doesn’t seem like a realistic option. Instead, The Athletic claim that the ‘most likely’ course of action from the Premier League would be a points deduction against Pep Guardiola’s side.
Liverpool finished as runners-up in one of the season’s under investigation – 2013/14. As a result, the Reds may be hoping for a retrospective deduction. This would see them add another Premier League trophy to their collection.
Unfortunately though, Hill claims that a slashing of points would likely happen in real-time. “I would expect that if there is a points deduction it would be applied to the season in which the decision is made rather than retrospectively,” he says.
There could still be good news for Liverpool, though. The final decision is claimed to be potentially ‘years’ away. Could it be that in the heat of another epic title tussle between these two teams, City are hobbled when they need it the most? We can only dream. For now, it only stings that Liverpool won’t get what they rightly earned in 2014 and beyond. Throw the book at them.