Man City must be relegated after guilty verdict says club’s former chairman

Manchester City must be expelled from the Premier League following their guilty verdict for breaching financial rules, according to the club's former chairman David Bernstein. City arranged sham contracts with commercial partners to artificially inflate their revenues and reduce costs between 2009 and 2018, concealing the true state of their finances.

An independent commission found the club guilty on the majority of charges related to their failure to cooperate with the league's investigation. While no sanction has been imposed yet, City plans to appeal the decision. Bernstein believes the club deserves the strongest possible punishment and that if their appeal fails, they must suffer consequences, including relegation.

British government's Culture, Media and Sport secretary, Lisa Nandy, stated that relegation could not be ruled out if City's appeal fails, emphasizing the ultimate sanction as very serious. Football finance expert Kieran Maguire suggested that the breaches now appear even worse than initially suspected, indicating collusion within the club.

City fan David Mooney expressed shock at the scale of the Premier League's verdict, stating that the book needs to be thrown at the club if they fail on appeal.