The five people who will decide Man City's punishment

The sanction for Manchester City will not be decided by the Premier League alone. According to BBC Sport, the league's board must recommend a punishment after an independent commission found the club guilty in September of breaching financial rules. A three-person commission will then decide the sanction, weighing the league's submission and the view of City, who deny wrongdoing and have appealed. No date has been set for a hearing, and it is not known what the league will ask for, with a fine, points deduction, expulsion or stripping of past titles all possible.

The board is made up of the chair, the chief executive and three independent non-executive directors, with no club representatives. The chair is Alison Brittain, the league's first female chair, who in 2025 won unanimous backing from the 20 clubs for a second three-year term. Chief executive Richard Masters, in the job since 2019, said in September that the decision vindicated the league's decision to pursue the case.

The other directors are Mai Fyfield, a former Sky executive; Dharmash Mistry, a technology investor who chairs the league's audit and finance committee; and Matthew Ryder, a barrister and former deputy mayor of London. There is precedent: in 2023 the league asked for a 12-point sanction for Everton, and the commission settled on 10.