Man City FFP: Kieran Maguire predicts two punishments with ‘precedent’ set – ‘my gut reaction’ | OneFootball

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has predicted two major punishments for Manchester City following the guilty FFP verdict.

Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Man City have been found guilty on almost all charges after they were accused of breaching the Premier League’s FFP rules, though the club have since submitted an appeal.

However, it has also emerged that Man City’s appeal could be doomed from the start, with the club facing severe sanctions. Their possible punishments include a fine, transfer ban, points deduction, expulsion and/or being stripped of their Premier League titles.

Given the severity of Man City’s breaches, it is possible that they are handed multiple punishments, and Maguire suspects one sanction will be huge fine.

“As far as the outcome is concerned, I think we’ve got to look at precedent,” Maguire told talkSPORT.

“Chelsea were given significant fines from both the Football Association (and remember, the Football Association might take this up later) and from the Premier League for around £20m over their financial misdemeanours, not registering payments to unauthorised agents and so on.

“So you would expect that to be quite significant. Also, it was noticeable in the Chelsea claim that the club agreed to pay the Premier League legal costs, which were quite substantial. These are going to be far bigger.

“So we’re probably talking about £50m-£60m in all probability, plus a substantial fine.”

“My gut reaction is…”

Maguire has also predicted a substantial points deduction for Man City, and has revealed how many points he thinks will be docked.

“Then, of course, we’ve got the precedent of Nottingham Forest, Everton, and Leicester City, all of whom breached the PSR limits and were given points deductions,” Maguire continued.

“Now, the logic behind that is that if you spend more money on players, it gives you an advantage on the pitch, and that advantage on the pitch should be punished with a punishment on the pitch in the form of a points deduction.

“Given that the Man City offences took place over a longer period of time, therefore it’s multiple offences over multiple years, you would expect a multiple of the points deductions that we’ve seen.

“We don’t know by how much Man City exceeded the PSR limits, and we’re now working on the basis of reading some of the former reports that it works out as a three-point deduction to kick off with, plus one extra point per extra £6.5m over the limit. So that will form a rough basis.

“And then there’s a further issue, have you assisted with the investigation? We’ll suggest they probably haven’t. So that’s called an aggregating factor, and the panel could subsequently give an additional points deduction on top of that.

“If all of those are proven post-appeal, my gut reaction is we would be looking for somewhere in the region of perhaps 50 to 60 points. If it’s more than 70 points, they’re effectively relegated.

“From a drama point of view, and I appreciate the commission’s not interested in the drama, you give Man City a 50-point deduction, they go to minus 35, there’s 33 matches left to play for, you’ve actually got a fantastic story.

“Because they could try and stay up. They could just about stay up. And I think the attitude of the players and everything would be fascinating. But that’s a Hollywood story, rather than, is that appropriate?”