For years, Manchester City were a ’boring’ club. Pep Guardiola is a master tactician and always wins, the Citizens were dominant in the Premier League (after all, they won it four consecutive times), there were no huge injury crisis and players were not on the front pages of the newspapers for the wrong reasons. But this year, everything changed and the Citizens and their fans are living in hell. Injuries, defeats, fighting not for the title but for the Champions League place, out of the Champions League, and that is not all. Slowly but surely, the court decision is coming.”There’s no point fining a billionaire owner a few quid!” 😳Kieran Maguire thinks a points deduction is the only real punishment for Man City… 👀 pic.twitter.com/eOAgmUgGZQ— The Overlap (@WeAreTheOverlap) April 2, 2025 The famous Premier League investigation against Manchester City was opened seven years ago and finally in February 2023 the charges (115 breaching) were laid and the independent commission was formed. The charges against the Citizens relate to the requirement to accurately report financial information, including around the value of sponsorship deals, the submission of details of manager and player pay information and to a club’s responsibility as a Premier League member to adhere to UEFA’s financial regulations and to the league’s own profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).Shujaa overcome Spain in plate semisThe independent commission started their work in September 2024 and ended it in December, but the final verdict is yet to be announced. Football finance expert Kieran Maguire talked about it on ’The Overlap’ and revealed what could be the reason for the delay.“We don’t know. I have spoken to some people high up and they reckon only four or five people in the country know when the verdict will be out. I think when it does come out, the big fear is that you get the verdict as to whether they are guilty or innocent of the 115 charges – but you don’t get told what the punishment is. That could come later. I think that would really set the cat amongst the pigeons. But in terms of the actual date, I think Pep said it was going to be in March, well we’ve got to the end of March and no news. So how long? We don’t know. You’ve also got to think about the lawyers, they are on the clock, if I’m on three or five thousand pounds an hour I’m not going to hurry a decision as to when the result is going to come out“ he said.Wenger defends Manchester City over FFP?The Premier League are eager to find out the verdict before the end of the season in May, as a potential punishment and points deduction to City could infect the clubs who will be relegated.“There is certainly a desire from the Premier League for it to come out, otherwise we’ve got a hangover over the summer, in terms of where does this leave clubs? If it comes out in July, for example, and Man City are given a 40 or 50 point deduction then presumably one of Leicester or Ipswich will be saying, ‘well if that had come out earlier we would have avoided relegation,’ so therefore they might be putting in a legal case. We’ve seen Burnley recently put in a case against Everton for the points decuction there. They believe they suffered financially” said Maguire.Man City win a court case against Premier LeagueAnd off course, the big question – what will be the punishment, if the Citizens are found guilty? Nottingham Forest and Everton got their points deduction, but according to Maguire, that’s ’penauts’ compared to the potential punishment towards Manchester.“If you read the commission reports from cover to cover they both say that these were minor breaches of the rules. What Manchester City are being accused of is corporate fraud over the period of nearly a decade, so, if guilty, you’ve got to add a zero on to the points deductions that we’ve seen for Forest and Everton. If not guilty…there’s going to be a lot of trouble” he said.PREMIER LEAGUE – MATCHDAY 30 TuesdayArsenal – Fulham (1-0)/Merino 37, Saka 73/Wolverhampton – West Ham (1-0)/Larsen 21/Nott. Forest – Manchester United (1-0)/Elanga 5/Wednesday21:45: (1.40) Bournemouth (5.25) Ipswich (8.00)21:45: (2.15) Brighton (3.75) Aston Villa (3.35)21:45: (1.20) Man. City (7.00) Leicester (14.00)21:45: (1.75) Newcastle (4.30) Brentford (4.20)21:45: (5.50) Southampton (3.90) Crystal Palace (1.63)22:00: (1.40) Liverpool (4.60) Everton (8.00)Thursday22:00: (1.65) Chelsea (4.50) Tottenham (4.70)***odds are subject to change***