One Man City star could ‘stay and fight’ after relegation amid threat of ‘financial disaster’ | OneFootball

Manchester City face a “financial disaster” if they look to keep their “galaxy of stars” after relegation from the Premier League, but one of them has been tipped to “stay and fight”.

The Premier League has confirmed that the independent panel has found City guilty on all charges related to breaches of their financial regulations over a nine-year period.

It was found that City had arranged “sham” contracts with commercial partners to inflate revenues and reduce costs to the tune of over £900m.

City maintain their innocence and are expected to appeal the ruling but the so-called ‘irrefutable evidence’ that the club bosses insist will prove their innocence is, well, refutable.

We wait to learn the Premier League punishment and just how much City will have to pay their rivals in damages. It could all be over by January.

Etihad Airways have piled further pressure on the Premier League, threatening legal action over the ‘damaging implications’ of the commission’s findings, while making a telling blunder in their 307-word statement.

Expulsion is one of several punishments available to the independent commission, but 15 of the 20 Premier League clubs would have to vote in favour of such a punishment for it to be carried out, meaning .

There’s now ‘a cloud hanging over’ the City Football Academy and palpable nerves among the players, who may have legal recourse to ‘rip up their contracts’ according to leading barrister Paul Gilroy KC.

But Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – reckons academy graduate Phil Foden may stick around to help his boyhood club climb back up through the divisions.

“Yeah, I could see Foden staying as a Manchester boy and that sort of thing happening. As I say, the wage pressure and the cost pressure are going to be significant on them as well,” he told Football Insider.

“So there’s going to be a case that you’ve got to get that in order. Otherwise, you start looking at models like Sheffield Wednesday that ended up being a financial disaster.

“City will be well aware of that, and they’ll know what they’re doing. And while it would be nice to think the players would stay and fight for the cause, they couldn’t afford to have them stay and fight for the cause.

“Just recently, Rangers got demoted three divisions in Scotland and actually that helped the whole league together because you had Rangers coming up through those leagues, giving everybody a big payday on those match days.

“It created big interest in those leagues, and in the end it hasn’t harmed Rangers that much; it actually helped the broader game overall, so there shouldn’t be this shock horror that it’s the end of the world.

“It’s something that can be recovered from, and you do try and pick the squad accordingly as to where you are placed to try and get promoted again. So there are examples they could follow, but yes, I wouldn’t expect a whole galaxy of stars; that’s for sure.”