The Premier League's In-House Justice System Is Rotten to the Core

Manchester City were found guilty of over 100 financial rule breaches stretching from 2009 to 2018. The independent commission's verdict was damning: £830.69m in inflated sponsorship deals, sham contracts, a decade of deception. Yet the punishment remains uncertain, and the appeal process feels less like justice than a negotiating table.

This Is Not a Trial, It's a Corporate Arbitration

Since 2020, the Premier League has operated a two-tiered disciplinary system: one for financial cheating, another for everything else. The independent commission that found City guilty is composed largely of lawyers who have spent careers representing clubs and owners. Baroness Triesman, a former FA chairman, once warned that such panels are inherently compromised. Meanwhile, the league's own handbook allows appeals to the same body that issued the verdict — a grotesque conflict of interest. Compare this to UEFA's failed case against City, thrown out by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2020 on procedural grounds. That failure taught the Premier League to build a more legally robust process, but it didn't guarantee a just outcome.

The result? A guilty verdict that feels more like a starting point for haggling than a moment of accountability. City have until Friday, October 2, to appeal — and they will. The sanction hearing that follows will determine whether the club faces expulsion or a points deduction. But here's the rub: the same league that allowed City's creative accounting for a decade is now tasked with punishing it. The Premier League's own executives, including chief executive Richard Masters, have been accused of being too close to the game's biggest spenders. This isn't justice; it's a corporate arbitration dressed up as sporting governance.

The Only Punishment That Fits Is Already Off the Table

The most devastating sanction — retrospective expulsion from the league — is legally impossible. You cannot un-relegate a club from a season already played. Points deductions, the likely compromise, would merely dent City's current campaign, not erase the trophies they won with tainted money. The real victims are the clubs that played by the rules and finished second. Since 2011, City have won seven Premier League titles. If even three of those were secured through illicit financial advantages, the integrity of the competition is shattered.

  • Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal have all been edged out in title races where City's net spend exceeded their own by hundreds of millions — money that, according to the commission, came partly from inflated sponsorship deals.
  • UEFA's 2020 CAS ruling exposed how City's legal team exploited procedural loopholes. The Premier League's commission was designed to avoid that, yet the appeal deadline creates another window for delay and obfuscation.
  • Under Premier League rules, a points deduction can be applied to a future season, meaning City could essentially serve their penalty after a summer of further heavy spending — a farce the league has never publicly addressed.

The 'It's All a Conspiracy' Defence Is Gaslighting

City's supporters and lawyers will argue that the league is a cartel, that the charges are a witch-hunt driven by jealous rivals. This is the same defence they used at CAS, where they successfully argued that the evidence against them was time-barred. But the independent commission has now examined the same evidence and found it compelling. The difference? The Premier League's rules allow for a broader scope of inquiry. The 'unsafe' verdict claim is a PR tactic, not a legal argument. If the commission's findings are so shaky, why did City try to have the entire case thrown out before it even began? Their appeal should be about substance, not procedure. Yet the club's public statements have focused on the latter, because the former is indefensible.

Prediction: City Will Accept a Points Deduction, Keep Their Trophies, and Spin It as Vindication

Within six months, Manchester City will quietly accept a points deduction — likely between 15 and 25 points, suspended or applied next season — and avoid expulsion. The Premier League will declare the case closed, the media will move on, and City will keep their seven titles. They will continue to spend, perhaps even break the world transfer record next summer, and the cycle will repeat. The only way to prove me wrong is for the appeal to result in a sanction severe enough to force relegation — something the league has never had the stomach for. Don't hold your breath.

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