Manchester City are reported to have been found guilty of the vast majority of the 134 disciplinary charges brought against them by the Premier League. The case has been conducted in private, with every party sworn to secrecy, and there is no official confirmation that the three-person judicial panel has reached a verdict. Even so, much of football is acting as if the reports of a major win for the Premier League are correct, and neither party has formally denied them.
The immediate focus is an appeal. Under Premier League rules, City would have 14 days from the announcement of the verdict to submit one. The process that follows should be completed in less than 12 weeks, with the appeal heard in one block of no more than five days. After a verdict, the appeal panel is expected to publish written reasons. Written reasons from the original panel are also expected, but the unique scale of the case means normal procedures have not always been followed, and the date of publication remains unknown.
If City appeal, they would be challenging the decision itself, not any punishment, which is yet to be determined. They would be allowed to submit new evidence, provided it had not previously been available to them, and to make new oral presentations. A verdict would be expected within 30 days of the hearing concluding.
If an appeal fails, Premier League rule W.97 states that the decision of an Appeal Board is final. Even then, arbitration is a possible last route. It would mean another panel of eminent legal figures, but the criteria for a hearing would be much stricter. Successful arbitration would mainly be possible if the judicial panel or appeal board were found to have abused the legal process. City recently went through arbitration with the Premier League over associated party transaction rules. After an initial verdict challenged two applications of the rules but otherwise found them sound, the club and the league reached a settlement that stopped the case going to court.
On punishment, if City overturned the verdict there would be no sanction. If their appeals failed, the panel could impose measures from fines to complete expulsion from the league, with sporting sanctions including point deductions in between. Given the magnitude of the verdict, City can expect a punishment at the sharper end of the scale should their appeal not prove successful.
Relegation may not be the end of it. Premier League clubs and clubs that have been relegated are understood to have been assessing potential financial losses they may have incurred during the period City were winning and, appeal pending, breaking the rules. A wave of lawsuits is likely to follow. Manchester United finished second behind City in 2017-18 and were potentially denied a record-breaking 21st league title. Relegated clubs could argue they were sent down because of points denied them by a City side subsequently found to have cheated. Premier League clubs reportedly lost their appetite for legal action after an estimated £50m cost to the competition last season, but if the verdict against City is ultimately upheld, a new wave of lawsuits will surely follow.