Ex-City chairman warns appeal 'disaster' as rivals plot compensation claims after 114-charge verdict

Manchester City are facing potentially historic sanctions and a wave of legal action from rival clubs after an independent commission found them guilty of 114 of 115 charges for breaching Premier League financial rules, covering a period between 2009 and 2018 during which they became the dominant force in English football.

Former City chairman David Bernstein, speaking to Times Radio, said the club’s reputation had already been “tarnished” and urged a swift resolution to the process. “This whole process has taken too long already,” Bernstein said. “The appeal process cannot go on for year after year — I think that would be a disaster. Not just for this particular case but for English football generally.”

Bernstein, who also served as FA chairman, went further on the question of punishment, suggesting a financial penalty alone would be insufficient. “If they are found, after the appeal, guilty of 115 charges, my beloved club is going to face a very severe penalty,” he said. “Money is not sufficient — it would have to be something, unfortunately, more drastic than that.”

City have not confirmed whether they will appeal but issued a statement noting the process remains ongoing. One executive at a rival club described an appeal as “inevitable”, a development that would require an entirely new panel to be convened and could extend the proceedings well into — or beyond — the current season.

That timeline raises a significant question for the Premier League’s integrity: if the appeal is unresolved by the end of the campaign, City could theoretically be crowned champions while still subject to a guilty verdict, a scenario Bernstein described as “unthinkable”.

Meanwhile, rival clubs are understood to be exploring large-scale compensation claims. The precedent was set when Burnley were awarded £35.1 million from Everton after successfully arguing that Everton’s PSR breach in 2021 had provided a sporting advantage. City’s alleged offences span nearly a decade, leading clubs including Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham to consider whether they lost out on Champions League qualification, prize money, commercial revenue and bonuses as a direct result.

The scale of potential claims could run into the hundreds of millions of pounds if those clubs can demonstrate a causal link between City’s rule breaches and their own financial losses — a legal process that would itself take years to resolve.

City’s statement maintained that the proceedings are still ongoing, leaving the club, the Premier League, and the wider football world in a prolonged state of uncertainty.