Lisa Nandy warns football fans must be shielded from 'Wigan hell' after Man City guilty verdict reports

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has urged football club owners to protect fans from financial ruin after reports surfaced on 25 September that Manchester City have been found guilty of 114 of the 115 Premier League financial rule breaches they were charged with in February 2023.

Neither Manchester City nor the Premier League have officially confirmed the verdict, and the Manchester Evening News understands City will appeal the ruling — a process not expected to begin for several months. Possible sanctions, should the club ultimately be found guilty, range from reprimands and fines through to points deductions or expulsion from the league.

Speaking on BBC 5 Live on Saturday 26 September, Nandy said the moment was damaging for the sport as a whole. “I think most football fans will be feeling this is not a good moment for football as a whole and I think Manchester City fans will be feeling very, very anxious about what happens next,” she said. “The football fans need to know that the rules are applied fairly and consistently. They need to know that they’re upheld and they need to know that the right decision has been reached.”

Nandy noted the investigation stretches back to allegations originating in 2009 and stressed there remains “a way to go” before a final resolution. She described the situation as “very unsettling for football fans” and expressed hope it could be resolved “as swiftly as possible”.

Asked what resolution would look like, Nandy said the matter was ultimately between the Premier League and Manchester City, but placed the charges in a broader financial context. “These are rules that the Premier League drew up itself because of concerns many years ago when clubs weren’t living within their means and that was having serious financial implications not just for individual clubs but the whole league,” she said, adding that the rules had been “applied differently by different clubs”.

Nandy pointed to the recently passed Football Governance Act and the forthcoming independent football regulator as the Government’s structural response to such concerns. She argued the regulator would be able to assess the game as a whole, ensure fair financial distribution, and protect individual clubs — shielding supporters from the kind of collapse that saw Wigan Athletic enter administration and drop through the divisions.