Man City told relegation FFP threats are ‘nonsense’ as EFL chairman explains why Premier League champions will avoid same title fate as Serie A giants Juventus despite 115 charges

The reigning Premier League champions have been stung with 115 charges regarding to supposed Financial Fair Play mismanagement. Top-flight rivals Everton and Nottingham Forest have been hit with points deductions after breaching Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR).

City are yet to discover their fate, while opening their own legal case against the Premier League, but have seen rumours circulate regarding potential demotion or the stripping of major honours. Their case is due to be heard before the end of the calendar year.

EFL chairman MacAnthony, who calls the shots at League One side Peterborough, cannot see drastic action being taken – with Juve having a trophy taken off them as part of the Calciopoli scandal in 2006. He has told talkSPORT: “I don’t know what the rule is that applies to those charges. I don’t know the punishment. I don’t know what the precedent is in the past. Is it two points per charge? I’m sure the media will have headlines like ‘relegation’, ‘banned’, ‘league titles from the past given back’…it’s all nonsense in my opinion. I don’t think you can change the past – I know in Italy that happened – but I’m not a fan of that.

“Everyone in football tries to manipulate, I’m not saying Man City have done this, let me speak for the EFL. Everyone, with all the wage caps, with all the rules and everything else, try to work around the system to sign players and make them as strong as possible. I’m not saying anyone is breaking the law or breaking any rules but there is definitely rule-bending going on, it’s no different in the Premier League. And I just think Man City, who they are and what they’ve done over the last decade, are an easy target, great media talk and I just say: let it play out, let’s see what happens at the very end.”

Questions are also being asked of Pep Guardiola’s future at City, as the FFP saga rumbles on, with MacAnthony adding on that subject – with the Blues’ Catalan coach into the final year of his contract: “I can’t speak for Pep but I think he’s done six years, maybe more, oh eight years, which is probably a long old period for him. He might be like Jurgen [Klopp] and he might after another year, and winning X amount in a row, go ‘you know what? I need a year off’.

“This game is relentless and I can understand what Jurgen Klopp did. It’s hard enough being an owner, being a manager, being in that rat race for the last four years since Covid, it is relentless. You talk about mental health, you talk about health, physically, mentally, these people get run through the mill. So I can only imagine what Pep’s body and mind is feeling like and maybe he does need some time off. If I was Man City I would be like ‘Pep, take a year off, we’ll stick your number two in charge for a year and you can come back after a nice breather…I would have done that with Jurgen.”

City have rewritten the history books by landing four Premier League titles in a row. They will open the defence of that crown at Stamford Bridge on August 18, with pre-season friendlies in the United States against AC Milan, Barcelona and Chelsea being taken in prior to that.