The Premier League has potentially hinted at the seriousness of any punishment facing Manchester City should they be found guilty of the 115 charges levelled against them, after suggesting Chelsea were treated more favourably due to their cooperation. The Blues were handed a £10.75million fine, issued with a suspended transfer ban on first-team activity and a nine-month restriction on signing academy players for violating the league’s financial regulations in connection with seven transfers.

Chelsea self-reported the matters following the takeover of the club by Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly from Roman Abramovich. The new owners, BlueCo, then disclosed the irregularities that led them to acknowledge £47m had been paid to unregistered agents and third parties.

The transfers for Eden Hazard, Willian, Ramires and David Luiz were among the deals investigated.

Upon revealing the Blues’ punishment, the Premier League said: “When considering the appropriate sanction, the Premier League Board noted that the club’s proactive self-reporting, admissions of breach and exceptional cooperation throughout the investigation acted as significant mitigating factors.”

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The Premier League charges levelled at City include an accusation that the Manchester outfit, from December 2018, violated regulations requiring them to ‘cooperate with, and assist, the Premier League in its investigations, including by providing documents and information to the Premier League in the utmost good faith’.

The hearing into City’s alleged violations of the Premier League’s financial regulations concluded in December 2024. A 12-week tribunal was held but the independent commission has yet to publish its verdict.

City were charged with 115 breaches of financial regulations spanning a nine-year timeframe. The club has consistently denied all allegations throughout the proceedings.

The charges encompassed 54 counts of failure to supply accurate financial information from 2009-10 to 2017-18, plus failure to furnish accurate particulars for player and manager remuneration across the same timeframe, hinting that the club has no co-operated in a similar manner to Chelsea.

It is suggested that City could face a deduction of 40 to 60 points should they be found guilty of some of the most serious charges against them.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire said: “If we take a look at precedents, we’ve had Everton and Nottingham Forest with six and four-point deductions for a single offence covering a three-year period.

“The accusations against Manchester City cover a nine-year period, so it’s far bigger. The numbers involved, we’re not certain about, but they’re likely to be quite significant.

“So I think you have to add a zero to what we’ve seen from Forest and Everton, so somewhere between a 40 and 60-point deduction would, I think, on merit, be consistent with what we’ve seen from other decisions on logic. If they want to go further then we don’t know the severity.

“In the cases of both Forest and Everton, they were to do with FFP [Financial Fair Play] purely. The accusations against Manchester City are why it’s taking so long. Corporate fraud is a very serious accusation.

“The board of directors would have to go. How can you be in a meeting room with other members of the Premier League and the Premier League itself, of whom you’re a shareholder, with this accusation being proven?

“If you take a look at what happened with Juventus in Serie A, their board had to resign when they were claiming things about player wages that were proven to be untrue. I think there’s an honesty thing here, if Manchester City are proven to be guilty. And that could mean a complete restructure of the club.”