Man City 115 costs replace given as ‘seismic second’ for Premier League looms

Manchester City were beaten 2-0 by Liverpool on Sunday afternoon, but away from the pitch City are said to remain confident they will be exonerated of their alleged breaches of Premier League financial rules

Liverpool took another stride towards the Premier League title with a 2-0 win over Manchester City on Sunday.

But despite this setback and a nightmare season on the field for Pep Guardiola’s reigning champions, it’s claimed City remain bullish about the outcome of their battle with the Premier League over alleged financial rules breaches.

In February 2023, the Premier League charged City with flouting more than 100 financial rules between 2009 and 2018, which the club has always vehemently denied. An independent commission conducted a 12-week hearing between September and December to investigate these claims.

According to David Ornstein, of The Athletic, a verdict is expected to be delivered in spring, with City reportedly confident they will be cleared of any wrongdoing.

“It’s just over two years ago since those charges and the feeling I get from speaking to people at and around the club is that we could be looking at a springtime verdict,” Ornstein told NBC Sports before the match at the Etihad.

“So, maybe a month or two away and that feels pretty soon. Of course this is still subject to potential appeals in that process too, but the verdict would feel like a seismic moment whatever the outcome.”

“The important point to say from City’s perspective is that they are totally confident that they will be exonerated and prove their innocence, so they’re operating as usual,” reports the Liverpool Echo.

“We saw them do a lot of business in the January transfer window. None of that business, to my knowledge, was to pre-empt potential punishment because they don’t think they are going to be punished for these alleged breaches.

“In the contract negotiations they’ve been holding in recent years, the transfer talks that have taken place, no clauses have been inserted into those deals to say ‘if City are punished, this is going to happen’.

“Players want to join Manchester City and they are continuing with everything that they are doing.

“It had no impact on Pep Guardiola signing a new contract in autumn, on Erling Haaland in the story I broke in January, on [sporting director] Txiki Begiristain’s decision to leave the club as sporting director – that was long-planned, or Hugo Viana’s decision to replace him.

“Think that they are going to be fined, let’s see how it materialises.”