Relegation, titles stripped, points deduction - Man City charges punishment hint already clear

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola celebrates winning the Premier League with chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak
-Credit: (Image: AP Photo/Dave Thompson)


Despite the noise made by Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal fans (among others), Manchester City's high profile hearing with the Premier League is not comparable to that of Everton, Nottingham Forest, or Leicester City. This is both good and bad.

On the positive side, there is no footballing precedent relating to the 115 alleged breaches. Although some of the claims are profitability and sustainability (PSR) related, the bigger allegation is effectively of fraud, lying, and cheating.

Unlike Everton and Forest, who both went over the clearly defined £105million allowed-loss threshold for a rolling three-year period, City are charged with malpractice, attempting to pull the wool over the league's eyes, and actively seeking an unfair advantage rather than just being a bit reckless with spending.

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This means that translating the initial 10-point points deduction (later reduced to six) for Everton into a City punishment is not worthwhile. Everton accepted that they went over the line, and provided mitigation for why it happened, but didn't protest their accounts.

Forest took more of a fight but were still sanctioned. City, however, have hit back fully and deny any of the Premier League's suggestions.

Looking at the picture two ways once more, on one hand the league has previously failed to get the desired punishment passed (having Everton's lowered and then Leicester let off on a technicality), which provides optimism should City be found guilty. There is feasibly no limit to just how strong they could try and come down on Pep Guardiola's side if things were to go badly though.

With no clear and comparable case across sport, let alone football, to City's current one, MEN Sport takes a look at how other high-profile punishments have been dished out.

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Points deductions

This one is simple and close to home. The Premier League hasn't had too much history with docking points from its own members but it has happened.

In recent memory it is Everton and Forest. In 2010, Portsmouth lost nine points and were ultimately relegated after entering administration. There was also the case of Middlesbrough in January 1997.

The northeast side became the first club to be punished having failed to turn up to a game with manager Bryan Robson claiming that 23 players were absent due to illness or injury. He said that it had been assured a postponement would follow, but Boro didn't give the proof needed and landed themselves a three points deduction plus £50,000 fine.

Fines

This is a more common way of attempting to dissuade wrongdoing from players and clubs across sport. One of the biggest on record is McLaren's Formula One group being given a mammoth £50million fine for gaining access to technical information of their rivals, Ferrari, in 2007.

In 2000, NBA star Joe Smith was at the centre of a scandal that earned Minnesota Timberwolves a fine of over £2million at the time. That was for agreeing an under-the-table contract and covering up the deal.

Relegation

Now moving to some of the more serious cases. In 2006 Juventus were found to have been at the middle of a match-fixing scandal that saw the club relegated from Serie A. Juventus were also retrospectively stripped titles (more on that later), as well as dropped to last place in the league.

Named Calciopoli, the Old Lady were found to have been hand-picking referees for matches and gaining themselves officials which offered favourable decisions. Although there were no bribes taken, Juventus were heavily punished alongside Fiorentina, Lazio, and AC Milan.

Juve were the only team relegated out of hand but 30 points were docked from the other three sides. Prison sentences. fines, and bans from football were given to some of the chiefs involved in the scandal.

Moving across sports to rugby and Saracens were also relegated for their breach of Premiership salary caps. They were already deducted a maximum 35 points for spending three years above the spending cap, as well as being fined almost £5.5million.

Saracens accepted the sanction but also saw Premiership Rugby flat out relegate them anyway. Like Juventus, they bounced immediately back.

Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Chairman of Manchester City, and Pep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City, poses for a photo with the Premier League title trophy
Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Chairman of Manchester City, and Pep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City -Credit:Michael Regan/Getty Images

Stripped titles

Going back and removing success from the history books (albeit with an asterisk) is another method that has been used. Once more it is Juventus in football that stands out.

Inter were awarded the 2005/06 Serie A crown - the year before Juventus' scandal came to light - but no such alternative winner was given for the year before. Milan had finished runners up to Juve that season, and were also punished, so the list of champions includes an empty line in 2004/05.

Pivoting elsewhere again and perhaps the biggest example in sport for titles being stripped is actually Lance Armstrong. The seven-time Tour de France winner saw all of his titles taken away from him after a doping investigation found him guilty of benefiting from performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).

Armstrong would go on to admit his mistakes after denying claims during the 90s that he was using PEDs. He won his titles in consecutive years but was later banned from all world events following the anti-doping code. His victories were not awarded to other riders.