Man City FFP: David Ornstein speculates EXACT punishment after guilty verdict and makes Sheikh Mansour removal clarification
The Athletic journalist David Ornstein has speculated that Manchester City could be thrown out of the Premier League and has also explained whether Sheikh Mansour could be removed as the club’s owner.
It was Ornstein who dropped the bombshell news last Friday that Man City have been found guilty of FFP breaches.
The Premier League confirmed it this week, with sources telling TEAMtalk that Man City are now planning to appeal against the verdict of the Independent Commission.
If Man City fail in their appeal, then they could be punished with a hefty fine, a point deduction, a transfer ban or relegation from the Premier League.
Reliable journalist Ornstein has speculated that Man City could be thrown out of the Premier League should they fail to overturn the verdict.
Ornstein said on The Overlap: “I can only say, not what I believe because that’s completely irrelevant and this discourse in the public domain is totally understandable, but none of us have a clue what they are going to get hit by.
“We have never seen this before.
“The whole spectrum is open to the independent commission and that could be the most devastating consequences for Manchester City, or it could technically be a telling off and a slap on the wrist.
“Given that they have been found guilty of all of the financial charges and the majority of the compliance ones as well, you would imagine it would be the decision of the independent commission, will be an extremely heavy punishment.
“There’s no other conceivable correlation to the fact that they…
“I am just guessing here, but you are talking about, I don’t imagine they would be playing in the Premier League if a punishment is commensurate to the verdict.”
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Sheikh Mansour to stay at Man City for now
Ornstein has also said that Man City owner Sheikh Mansour cannot be removed from his role, despite the FFP guilty charges.
The Athletic journalist has noted that while Sheikh Mansour could eventually leave of his own volition in the future, for now, the FFP breaches do not affect his position.
When asked if the Man City owners could be got rid of, Ornstein said: “Well, that would be more a question for the independent regulator.”
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher then said that the Man City owners need to go because of the current turmoil at the club.
Ornstein responded: “So, I think what you are suggesting is they need to be got rid of.
“I don’t think it works like that in terms of you want them to go or somebody wants them to go.”
Carragher replied by saying that Man City fans would eventually want the current owners to leave because of the FFP breaches and their club being dragged through the mud.
To that, Ornstein replied: “Yeah, that’s a different point.
“If that comes, that’s an organic thing, and it would be a decision for the owners if they listen to their fans.
“What I am saying is that it would have to be, at this point in time, to get what you initially suggested, it would have to be being removed because of breaches in terms of the independent regulator finding from the end of the process that these are not fit and proper owners and directors.
“Now there is a section in the report, the summary that has come out, that has redacted the name of somebody it claims knew nothing about this, and there has been an assumption in the last 24 hours or so that that is Sheikh Mansour.
“We don’t know that for a fact, but, the redacted name was found by the independent commission to have known nothing about the ownership funding the sponsorship deals.
“And so, if that is Sheikh Mansour, and he is the owner that you are talking about and he may be exonerated in the process, and then, I am not talking about the fans, I am talking about the actual fact, the people that could potentially face action, you would imagine, is the executives that are found by the case to have broken the rules.”
Meanwhile, Financial Times has reported that Man City chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak has immunity.
The report stated: ‘Khaldoon al-Mubarak, a senior Abu Dhabi official who has chaired City since 2008, was placed on the UK’s official list of approved diplomats in 2020.
‘This automatically confers immunity from any criminal investigation and in most cases shields the person from civil proceedings on UK soil.’
