Stripped of titles, relegated and fined: what fans want as Man City's punishment

Manchester City should be stripped of every Premier League title won between 2009 and 2018, relegated from the top flight, and handed a substantial fine — that is the verdict of more than 16,600 Manchester Evening News readers polled in the wake of the club’s guilty finding on financial rule breaches.

The Premier League confirmed an independent panel’s findings this week in a damning statement, concluding that City had breached the league’s financial regulations. The club, which has consistently maintained its innocence throughout a process that began in 2023, has until Friday, 2 October to lodge an appeal — a step they are widely expected to take.

The poll, which drew over 16,600 responses, revealed a clear appetite for severe consequences. Roughly 40 per cent of voters backed the full package of punishments: title stripping, relegation, and a large fine. A further 35 per cent took a more sceptical view, predicting that nothing will ultimately happen and that City’s appeal will succeed. Around 10 per cent supported relegation alone, eight per cent favoured only a financial penalty, and seven per cent said titles should be stripped without any other sanction.

Because the Premier League must work through an appeals process before any punishment can be imposed, a definitive outcome could still be some way off — leaving fans and clubs in a prolonged period of uncertainty.

Gary Neville, meanwhile, has proposed a markedly different remedy. Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, the former Manchester United defender and pundit argued that removing City’s owners would be the most meaningful consequence of all.

“Points deductions, fines, transfer bans, removing the titles — not giving them to others, just removing the titles — it’s significant punishments,” Neville said. “The only punishment that would have huge consequences — the biggest consequence — would be removing the owners. That is the only consequence if I was Manchester City that I would be worried about.”

Neville was careful to separate the club’s identity from its current ownership, adding: “Manchester City will recover as a football club because Manchester City have been there longer than these owners, they’ll be there long after them, and it’s got an immense history.”

With City’s appeal deadline approaching and the full sanctions process still ahead, the question of what punishment — if any — will ultimately be enforced remains unanswered.