I think that’s an overly pessimistic view on things. It will be much harder for them to commit such obvious fraud on that scale, if they even still exist by then. I remember a comment from somewhere that if they get relegated, they’re likely to be ineligible for the Championship/Football League in general because of the leagues’ financial regulations, which means they would have to go quite far down.
I don’t see how the league can justify a sub 30 point ban, given Everton got 10 points on one charge for a fairly uncontested overspend issue. There’d be rioting
Shame City don’t know the meaning of the bolded word. They’ll probably find a way to sell a player to Girona with a buy back clause of the same amount as they sold him for.
The Prem is walking a tightrope. They want to punish Man City for their cheating. But they are caught up in never ending litigation, tied up in knots having to dedicate countless hours and millions in resources to fight Man City legally. Man City are doing exactly what they said, and this is just a vindictive game for them, as they don’t want to be held to account.
The other difficulty for the Prem is presumably they are getting leaned on from on high, given the billions Abu Dhabi has invested in the country. It has moved way beyond a sporting matter.
My expectation is a very unsatisfactory points deduction - 40 points, and Man City will manage to stay up. They will go all out to win the CL to not miss out on the competition next year.
The Prem will claim they were tough - largest penalty ever meted out. City will say they are being victimized, but will try to claim they are acting for the good of the game by accepting the punishment (presumably it will all be negotiated before hand).
The wider game will be up in arms at such a lenient punishment, and some clubs, including LFC, will sue them directly for losses.
I hope I’m wrong and they are booted out of the Prem, with titles stripped, but I suspect the Prem will grow tired of fighting before Man City are exhausted.
or Abu Dhabi tear up the project and start again…to me thats a real possibility…
they can leave the club in a relatively healthy (long term) position, they still have all the soft power gained, they control parts of greater Manchester and take the similar project to a London Club…
Anyway, a run of Spurs (H), Feyenoord, Us (A), Forest (H) all without any recognized 6 will be interesting for them. Stones has done a job but he hasnt been available recently. Lewis might be tried there, but they are already short at the back. We could see something odd like Bernardo being tried there.
