Manchester City Sanction Hearing Analysis

Rob, look, the question everyone wants to know

is what division will

City play? And I know you've been looking into this.

Yeah. And look, we shouldn't try and preempt any decision by the

independent

commission when it comes to the sanction hearing. That has not happened yet.

And we've been talking for the last week or longer about the

potential sanctions that could be handed towards Manchester

City.

There could be hefty fines, there could be points deductions,

there could

even be the extreme measure of expulsion from the Premier

League, and it is entirely in the hands of

that independent commission to decide

the punishment for Manchester City going forward from here.

And let's be clear, Manchester City have made it very clear

that they will appeal

this, and they will appeal this decision, uh, about the, the,

the, the, the, the, the charges that have been proven against them before

there's

any sanction hearing. So we are being a little bit preemptive here,

but I think

it's a question on the lips of every single football fan

and every other football

club right now, what might happen to Manchester City

going forward? And if you take the most extreme of those

sanctions,

that if they were to be expelled from the Premier League, I think there's been a

general assumption that Manchester City would come in at the

championship level.

I can tell you that that isn't possible.

That is not something that can happen within the EFL rules

unless there

is a special vote to allow it to happen, a vote that would involve

all of the members, all 72 members of the EFL.

The only way, really, that City can end up playing in the

championship is

if they receive a points deduction large enough to force them to be

relegated this season. But if they were expelled from the Premier League,

there are huge logistical issues for the Premier League and for the

EFL to address. First and foremost, would the Premier League have to

nullify Manchester City's results from this season if they were no longer

competing in the top division for the remainder of this season?

Almost certainly, yes, they would have to do that.

And we ought to stress as well that the Premier League and the EFL are

completely separate bodies. Yes, there's promotion and relegation from

one to the other, but they are separate bodies who are made up

of their member clubs. So just as the 20 Premier League member

clubs vote to make decisions on what happens in the Premier League, so the

72 EFL clubs have to vote to take decisions on what they

would do if Manchester City were to be expelled from the Premier

League.

And the FA would have a crucial role in this as well, because Manchester City,

if they were to be expelled from the Premier League,

would have to reapply to the

FA to come back into the football pyramid, and what level

they would come back into the football pyramid is a, a, a

subjective and a very political decision that would have to be

taken. We ought to stress that the independent panel cannot make

recommendations

about where the club might have to reenter, uh, that

pyramid. But it's very, very clear, and it's written into the EFL rules, that

any new member who joins the EFL, and that's what Manchester

City would be if they were expelled from the Premier League,

any new member of the

EFL has to join in League Two. And

so what that would mean is it would then come to a, a, a vote

of the 72 EFL clubs about what level they

felt

should, it, Manchester City should be reintegrated

into the football

pyramid. And it was only if there was a majority in favor of an ultimate

decision for Manchester City to reenter at the championship, or League One or

League Two, that that would happen.

And so it's a very complicated process that goes on for

here. Um, and you've got to remember that when the championship playoffs were

expanded from four clubs to six clubs at the end of last season, when

that vote was taken, it had to be a majority of all the 72

clubs that voted in favor of it, and a majority of the championship clubs

who voted in favor of it. Now, the question you have to ask yourselves

is, would

the championship clubs vote for Manchester City to be

reintegrated at their level in the championship?

Well, they might not be too keen on that idea, with a club of the power and

quality of Manchester City and their football squad to come in at

that level.

And then a further complication is that they'd have too many teams.

Instead of 24 clubs in the championship, there'd be 25.

What would that mean for promotion and relegation in that league for the,

for that season and the following season?

As you can hear, it becomes a very complex situation.

And so any assumption that if Manchester C- City are,

uh, expelled from the Premier League, they'll just come back in at the

championship

level, that is not the case. That is not necessarily the case.

They would have to join at League Two under the existing EFL and

FA rules, unless, unless the 72

EFL clubs voted to bring them in at a different level, and there's absolutely no

guarantee that would happen. There's gonna be an awful lot more

discussion about

this and these sorts of possibilities and circumstances going on over the days

and weeks and months to come. Where we have to end this

is by pointing out

that Manchester City are still proclaiming their innocence.

They are still saying they have done nothing wrong,

even though they've been found,

uh, to have all of these charges proven

against them.

Um, and they have made it very clear they

will, will appeal.

But for the whole of English football at every level, the ramifications

of this are absolutely huge.