(Credit: Imago)

James Murray

Wed 25 March 2026 17:00, UK

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Manchester City will argue they should only receive a fine in their 115 charges case if they are found to have breached the financial rules in a similar manner to Chelsea. 

That is according to former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider Pep Guardiola’s side will insist Everton and Nottingham Forest’s point deductions should not be used as the precedent. 

Chelsea have been handed a £10million fine and a suspended transfer ban after admitting to making £47m worth of secret payments to agents and third-parties linked to deals between 2011 and 2018 when Roman Abramovich was in charge.

The Blues also received an immediate nine-month academy transfer ban and a further £750,000 fine due to offences committed between 2019 and 2022.

However, the London giants avoided a sporting sanction, leading to questions around what the verdict could mean for Man City’s 115 charges case. 

What happens if Man City are found guilty?

Man City were dealt the charges by the Premier League in February 2023 for allegedly breaching the financial fair play (FFP) rules over a nine-year period between 2009 and 2018. 

An independent commission hearing started in September 2024 and ended in December that same year, with the panel still considering its verdict. 

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson discussed what Chelsea’s verdict could mean for Man City.

“Remember the way City’s situation is going to work,” said Borson.

“You have a decision on liability, then we’re going to have a period where it’s digested, and then we’re going to have a sanction hearing depending on what they do with the appeals.

“But let’s just say that they wait for the appeals until all of it’s done, and then they appeal everything. Of course, we don’t know if City are going to be found liable, and City deny it. 

“So, what would happen in the sanction hearing is when the parties pitch in what they think the sanctions should be, City are going to be saying, ‘Well, hang on a minute. The precedent that you should be using and pointing to is not Everton and Nottingham Forest’. I mean, obviously this depends on what the consequential impact is of City.” 

How Man City could avoid Everton-style punishment

Borson revealed it would be hard to argue Man City shouldn’t be treated in the same way as Everton and Forest if they are found to have breached the profit and sustainability rules (PSR). 

“Let’s say City breach and that therefore also means that they end up breaching PSR, then of course City can be squarely in the Everton and Nottingham Forest realms of sanction, so it’s going to be very hard for City to say, ‘Well, we should be treated differently from the PSR breach’,” said Borson. 

“But in the way that those have been calculated, the situation now is pretty set for a PSR breach. 

“But if it’s not, if what ends up happening is City are found, let’s say in the words of the Chelsea case, to have obviously and deliberately breached and to have concealed it with deception, which is the conclusion of the Chelsea situation, in that scenario, City will say, ‘Well, the Chelsea situation has established authority for that to be a financial penalty only. Yes, we might not have the same level of cooperation, but it says in the Chelsea sanction that absent of the cooperation and the early admission, they would have had double the fine. So fine, we’ll take a £20m fine for those elements’. That’s what City will argue.” 

Everton were previously deducted eight points for two separate PSR breaches, while Forest received a four-point penalty.