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WHAT HAPPENED?
The Premier League giants are still waiting for a verdict to be delivered at the end of a long-running saga which has dragged on for more than two years. An independent hearing was completed late in December 2024, with various punishments being speculated on.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
City could be stung with points deductions, transfer embargoes or fines - with expulsion from the top-flight considered to be unrealistic - but Pep Guardiola’s troops are no closer to knowing where they stand as the countdown to 2025-26 begins.
GettyDID YOU KNOW?
Stefan Borson, who once worked for City, admits that those at the Etihad Stadium will want a final decision to be made before another campaign gets underway. They have maintained their innocence throughout, but know that sanctions could be on the way.
WHAT EX-FINANCIAL ADVISER SAID
Borson has told Football Insider: “I would work on the general understanding that sooner is better for City. Clearly, as we get further into the deliberation period, or the drafting period, then you start to think that the extent of the judgment needs to be particularly carefully drafted to ensure that there are no challenges to very serious findings.
“Now, I don’t think we’re in that period yet, however, because I think that we are still in the relatively early stages of when we would expect a decision of a case of this magnitude. And furthermore, we don’t know the details of the diaries of the panel who are deliberating, so it may well have always been planned that they would have to take some time because it’s perfectly possible, for example, that they went straight into other work in the early part of this year.
“It may be that those were other matters that have only just been completed, so the decision was always going to take probably until at the earliest April. We are now almost in July. I do think we are getting into the period where City will start to have some concerns about where the decision is. We are in that sort of early period still, but I think it will switch quite quickly into an area of concern for the club if it drags on closer to the start of the season.”
Getty Images WHAT NEXT FOR MAN CITY?
City are currently competing at the FIFA Club World Cup, where they are due to face Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal on Monday. It has been revealed that their bid for another Premier League crown will begin away at Wolves on August 16.