Football finance expert Kieran Maguire believes that Manchester City are facing up to a 100-point deduction if they are found guilty of financial impropriety.
The perennial champions are defending 115 separate alleged breaches of financial rulesspanning nine years from 2009 and the sternest punishment if found guilty is relegation. Points deductions and fines are also potential penalties.
The league charged City with a failure to provide accurate financial information and a failure to provide accurate details for player and manager payments.
An investigation was sparked by Der Spiegel publishing Football Leaks documents in 2018 and City stand accused of funnelling money from the club’s owners through sponsors in the United Arab Emirates.
The two parties will finally get their day in court, with proceedings set to get underway on Monday. And Maguire reckons that City could be looking at a huge points penalty if they are found guilty on all counts.
Football finance expert Keira Maguire believes that Man City could face a points penalty of up to 100 points
'They'd have to be looking at a very significant points deduction if all he 115 charges are proven,' he said on talkSPORT.
'Then you would imagine the points deduction would be somewhere in the region of 60 to 100 points on the basis that they'd want the club to have have suffered enough to be on heading out of the division.'
Maguire added: 'Whilst the hearing will finish in eight weeks, if you've got all of that evidence to present to the commission, they're probably going to take three to four months because they've got to rule on each of those 115 charges separately.
'If they are guilty of all of them then it's got to be so severe that any club that thinks about going down that route again will realise that it would be a very detrimental thing for that club's future.'
On Friday, City boss Pep Guardiola insisted that the club were ready to learn their fate and said he's happy the trial has finally arrived.
'It's going to happen and we're going to accept the sentence. I'm happy that it's going to start on Monday and we're going to see.' He said. 'I know what people are looking for, I know what they're expecting but everyone is innocent until guilty is proven.'
His comments came just hours after LaLiga president Javier Tebas claimed that Premier League clubs are secretly yearning for City to be punished. Tebas has been a vocal critic of City and their spending model for years.
'I have spoken with many Premier League clubs and most of them understand that City should be sanctioned,' he is quoted as saying by Mundo Deportivo.
He added that 'they were once acquitted by the CAS [Court of Arbitration for Sport] for a formal matter,' hinting that the reversal of the UEFA ban was only on a technicality.
Javier Tebas also spoke about the Premier League, saying that 'this year they have got their act together and have taken away points'.