Jamie Carragher believes Manchester City should face a punishment lasting several years if their appeal against a Premier League guilty verdict fails.
An independent commission found the club guilty of serious financial breaches spanning nine seasons, including the use of sponsorship agreements it ruled were sham arrangements.
City have appealed, calling the decision unsafe and insisting they are innocent of the accusations.
The former Liverpool defender said a points deduction lasting only one season would not properly reflect the scale and duration of the breaches found by the commission.
“If people talk about a penalty of 80 points or 100 points, that’s just over one season that gets you relegated and then you come back again,” Carragher said on The Overlap Fan Debate with Sky Bet.
“A few players would leave, but I think some of them would say, ‘I could put up with that for a year’.
“Because this has gone on for so long, I do think the punishment should be over a number of years, three to five years, and then players would move on.”
The commission found that between 2009-10 and 2017-18, City used commercial agreements that misrepresented the true arrangements with some sponsors, artificially inflating revenue and reducing costs.
Jamie Carragher believes Manchester City should face a punishment lasting several years if their appeal against a Premier League guilty verdict fails
|
THE OVERLAP/SKY BET
It also found the club had submitted misstated accounts and breached financial rules.
The commission ruled against City on all charges relating to serious financial breaches and upheld three of four charges concerning co-operation with the Premier League’s investigation. premierleague.com
The case centres in part on more than £830million in funding which the commission found had been recorded as sponsorship income over the nine-season period. City have consistently denied wrongdoing.
The club lodged an appeal on October 1, arguing that the commission’s opinion contains “clear material errors” of law, principle and fact and is “unsafe”.
“They’ve got to be out of the league!”
“It needs to be so bad that nobody does it again!”
The fans want a punishment that sends a message. What do you think should happen to Manchester City? https://t.co/OHijplTtyS
— The Overlap (@WeAreTheOverlap) October 6, 2026
City also said: “The Club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions.”
The appeal will be heard privately by an independent board.
The Premier League says any punishment will be dealt with separately, so no sanction has yet been announced.
City return to action against Liverpool at Anfield this weekend, in a fixture between two clubs who have been among the leading challengers for the Premier League title over the past decade and a half.
Man City chiefs Khaldoon Al Mubarak and Ferran Soriano have insisted the club are innocent | REUTERS
Former City defender and manager Stuart Pearce expects the atmosphere to be intense, but believes Enzo Maresca’s side can use the hostility as motivation.
“The opposition, they’ll be rolling their sleeves up,” he said.
“The atmosphere in the stadiums is going to be red hot.
“It’s unbelievable it happens to be Liverpool this weekend. It’s going to be electric. So it’s going to stimulate everybody else against City, and it’s got to stimulate City against everyone else.”
