Man City 115 charges verdict clear after incredible £427m statement

The verdict on the 115 charges levied against Manchester City is due to be revealed in the next few days. But it feels like everyone already knows what's coming.

In February 2023 the Premier League charged City with breaking Financial Fair Play rules over a nine-year period, which started in 2009 and went on until 2018. They have also been charged with failing to co-operate with Premier League investigations into their finances.

The charges relate to failure to provide accurate and up-to-date financial information; failure to provide accurate financial reports for payer and manager compensation; failure to comply with UEFA's regulations; breaching Premier League Profit and Sustainability regulations; and failure to co-operate with Premier League investigations.

It has been more than two years since those charges were brought now, but all indications are that a verdict is imminent. there have been suggestion of huge points deductions, massive fines and even the threat of relegation in the years leading up to now.

But what is the truth? We will know soon enough, although there is a growing feeling that sanctions will not be as harsh as initially made out.

Manager Pep Guardiola committed himself to two more years at the club earlier this season. His contract had been due to expire at the end of the 2024/25 campaign, giving him the perfect out if City were to be deducted points or even relegated. But he chose to stay on and is now under contract until 2027.

Erling Haaland, widely regarded as one of the best strikers in the world right now, committed his future to City too. The Norwegian put pen to paper on a whiopping ten-year deal earlier this season - a real statement of intent from the player and the club too. He is not a player to be playing in the Championship, nor fighting around at the bottom of the Premier League if points are deducted.

And then there's City's January transfer business. Three players came in during the winter window - Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez and Abdukodir Khusanov. All three are highly rated young players and all three, you would think, would have questioned the future of the club before deciding to sign on the dotted line.

The three transfers cost City around £180million in total and while Haaland's new contract was kept tightly under wraps, it was reported to be worth £500,000 a week to the striker. That amounts to £247million over the nine-and-a-half years that he signed on for, bringing City's outlay to a whopping £427million.

That shows it has been business as usual at the Etihad Stadium for some time. there does not seem to be any nervousness around the club about the outcome of these 115 charges.

The Athletic's David Ornstein told NBC Sports said last month: "The important point to say from City’s perspective is that they are totally confident that they will be exonerated and prove their innocence, so they’re operating as usual.

"We saw them do a lot of business in the January transfer window. None of that business, to my knowledge, was to pre-empt potential punishment because they don’t think they are going to be punished for these alleged breaches.

"In the contract negotiations they’ve been holding in recent years, the transfer talks that have taken place, no clauses have been inserted into those deals to say ‘if City are punished, this is going to happen’. Players want to join Manchester City and they are continuing with everything that they are doing.

"They think that they are going to be fined [at most], let’s see how it materialises."

They may even look at it, given the season they have had so far, and think that a points deduction right now would not be the worst thing in the world. They are having one of their worst Premier League campaigns under Guardiola and an immediate points deduction might not be the worst thing in the world for them, if they finish outside of the top five.

It's going to be an interesting few days and potentially weeks as we await a verdict, that could have major implications for Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and the rest of the Premier League.