Manchester City cannot expect the same leniency as Chelsea received

Manchester City were found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges relating to alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations. 

They have confirmed they will appeal against the verdict. The club could be fined, docked points or even expelled from the competition if the appeal fails.

Some fans have highlighted Chelsea’s lenient punishment as a sign their club may also escape a major penalty.  

After admitting to 74 breaches of football regulations, they received a £10 million fine and a suspended ban from registering new players for two transfer windows. 

However, a similar punishment for Man City is unlikely due to key differences between the two cases.  

What are the differences? 

After the forced sale of Roman Abramovich’s stake in Chelsea, new owners BlueCo made several worrying discoveries in their audit of the club’s financial records. 

They found that the previous regime had sanctioned illegal payments to help facilitate transfers for several players.

BlueCo self-reported their findings to UEFA, the Premier League and the Football Association (FA). 

In City’s case, formal charges were announced in February 2023 after an investigation began following German publication Der Spiegel’s release of leaked documents about the club’s finances. 

The Premier League found them guilty of systematic financial deception, including arranging ‘sham’ contracts with commercial partners as part of a scheme to artificially inflate revenues by £830m. 

City have maintained their innocence regarding these allegations from the outset. 

Chelsea made illegal payments totalling more than £47.5m which were not reported to the league. 

However, they fully cooperated with the investigations by voluntarily providing thousands of documents. 

Man City have chosen aggressive legal battles over cooperation. 

Chelsea were also helped by the fact that Abramovich was no longer involved. City’s current Abu Dhabi ownership insists they have done nothing wrong and still control the club.