All eyes are on Manchester City and what punishment, if any, might be meted out to Aston Villa’s rivals and the Premier League champions if, like Everton, they are found guilty of breaking financial rules.

The Premier League has charged City with more than 100 breaches of its financial rules between 2009 and 2018 and referred the club to an independent commission.

While their verdict on Man City is awaited, an independent commission has already delivered the same on Everton, finding them guilty last week and hitting the Goodison Park club with a 10-point deduction which has plunged them into the relegation zone.

Here, we take a look at Man City’s situation and our writers consider what might happen if they are found guilty. It is worth nothing City deny the allegations.

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Alex Dicken

Everton’s 10-point deduction seems to have magnified scrutiny on Manchester City and the punishments they may or may not receive if found guilty of breaching the Premier League’s rules. It has been a good while now since the Premier League levied 115 charges at City for breaches of their Financial Fair Play rules, but no action has been taken. Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering side are still top of the tree, as they have been in five of the last six seasons.

At the other end of the table sit Everton following a points deduction for a £19.5million miscalculation. The Manchester City charges are far bigger and run far deeper.

Over a nine-year period from 2009 to 2018, it is alleged City made 115 breaches. If that is true then there probably isn’t a suitable punishment which can be dished out by the Premier League. City have maintained throughout that it isn’t and that they are innocent.

If the Premier League can take points off Everton for a breach which, given the astronomical sums involved in top flight football, seems relatively minor, then what will they do to City? Stripping them of their titles before 2018 is a non-starter and pointless.

A truly damaging fine and points deduction feels more appropriate if the Premier League ever gets to the bottom of it.

Keith Wales

The Premier League have painted themselves into the tightest of corners by cracking down on Everton when a huge raft of rule breaches have been laid at Manchester City’s door.

Hammering Everton, and probably quite rightly, for a single infraction is all very well, but then you should be consistent in your approach to all similar cases. And will that be the case with City – Champions League winners, multiple holders of the Premier League title and the target of 115 charges of alleged wrongdoing? Perhaps not.

And while Everton were, by all accounts, open and transparent during their own probe, City have vehemently denied all wrongdoing. This smacks of a saga that could run and run.

But the Premier League do have some wriggle room – and it comes courtesy of Everton themselves. By appealing against their punishment, which leaves the Merseysiders in the bottom three and potentially open to legal action that could lead to further points penalties if they are forced into administration, a solution could be found to the sword of Damocles hanging over league officials.

Water down Everton’s sanction and so City’s can perhaps be similarly lenient if they are ultimately found to have breached the league’s profit and sustainability rules. Perhaps a far from satisfactory outcome for some clubs, but maybe it is the only realistic option out there if the current Premier League champions are not to be kicked out of the very competition they have dominated for the past three years.

Of course, there is another solution – just scrap financial fair play altogether and let the big moneybags clubs fight it out for supremacy. In reality, that has largely been happening for years, and arguably it is a more honest approach than the current dancing around on a pin head trying to apply consistent rules to clubs who are no longer playing on a level financial playing field.

James Pallatt

Transfer ban? No. Points deduction? Nah. Fine? No chance. Although severe sanctions, none of these would be the worst punishment for Man City if they were found guilty of breaking the Premier League’s financial rules. The worst punishment would be Pep Guardiola staying true to his word and walking out.

Guardiola made his stance clear back in May last year, saying he would leave the club if any financial wrongdoings were ever proven. “If I defend the people and the club it’s because I work with them,” he said. “When I asked about suspicions or if our people have done something, then I say to them, ‘tell me.’

“I said to them ‘if you lie to me, the day after I’m not here, I will be out and you will not be my friend any more.’ But I look at them and believe them 100 per cent from day one. So I defend the club because of that.”

Man City will hope it never reaches the stage where Guardiola cannot defend the indefensible because they would never be able to replace the best manager on the planet. When you have players like Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish and Kevin De Bruyne and a Treble-winning squad already at the Etihad, a transfer embargo would have little impact.

You would also back City to overcome any significant points deduction. And no financial fine is ever going to hurt the club’s wealthy owners. But there’s no way City would recover from Guardiola walking out, certainly not in the short term. This is the Man who has won them the lot and will no doubt continue to lead them to trophy after trophy, if they are ultimately found not guilty of the charges against them and it doesn’t all come crashing down, that is.

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