Manchester City found guilty: appeal deadline, possible sanctions and what comes next

Manchester City have been found guilty of the vast majority of the 134 disciplinary charges brought against them by the Premier League. The ruling, reached by a three-person judicial panel, opens a 14-day appeal window and leaves open the possibility of sanctions ranging from heavy fines to expulsion from English football's top flight.

What Manchester City must do to appeal the verdict

Under Premier League rules, the club has 14 days from the announcement of the decision to submit an appeal. The process that follows should be completed in less than 12 weeks. The appeal hearing would be held in a single block of no more than five days and, once the parties have been heard, the panel would be expected to deliver its verdict within around 30 days.

City would be allowed to introduce new evidence as long as it had not been previously available to them, as well as to make new oral presentations. The club's aim would be to argue that the original judicial panel was wrong in its observations. The appeal would focus solely on the decision, not on any punishment, because no sanction has yet been determined.

City could introduce new evidence and make fresh oral presentations in an effort to show the judicial panel got it wrong.

Why an appeal might not end the legal wrangling

Although Premier League rule W.97 states that the decision of an appeal board is final, there is still one last route: arbitration. The club would need to appear before another panel of eminent legal figures, though the criteria for a hearing would be far stricter. In general, arbitration would only succeed if the judicial panel or the appeal board were found to have abused the legal process.

Manchester City have already been through an arbitration process with the Premier League over rules related to associated party transactions. After an initial verdict challenged two applications of the rules but otherwise found them to be sound, the club and the league reached a settlement that kept the case out of court.

What sanctions Manchester City could face if the appeal fails

If the club were able to overturn the verdict, there would be no sanction at all. But if the appeals fail, the panel has a range of measures available that start with fines and end with complete expulsion from the league. Between those two extremes sit sporting sanctions such as point deductions.

Given the scale of the verdict, City can expect a punishment at the sharper end of that scale if their appeal does not succeed. The seriousness of the confirmed charges leaves little room for symbolic penalties.

The threat of lawsuits from rival Premier League clubs

Several Premier League clubs, including some who have been relegated, have been assessing the financial losses they may have suffered during the years when City were winning titles. If the verdict is upheld, a wave of lawsuits is likely. Manchester United, for example, finished second behind City in 2017-18 and could argue they were denied a record-breaking 21st league title in the process.

Relegated clubs could also claim they went down because of points denied them by a City side now found to have broken the rules. Last season, Premier League clubs reportedly lost their appetite for legal action after an estimated cost of £50m to the competition. But if the verdict against City is confirmed, a new round of litigation seems unavoidable.

What is at stake for Manchester City in the coming months

The case has been conducted entirely in private, with every party sworn to secrecy, so there is still no official confirmation that the panel has reached a verdict. Despite that, the football world is acting as if it has, and as if reports of a major win for the Premier League are correct. Neither side has formally denied those versions.

The immediate thing to watch is whether the club submits an appeal. The process that follows should be completed in less than three months. Written reasons from both the original judicial panel and the appeal panel are also expected, although the unprecedented scale of the case means normal procedures have not always been followed and publication dates remain unknown.