Manchester City have reportedly been found guilty of all but one of the 115 charges related to breaching the Premier League’s financial rules in a verdict that will send shockwaves through English football.

Two years after the case began, the independent panel that presided over the case has reached its decision – with Premier League clubs understood to have been informed at a meeting on Thursday.

No sanctions have been decided yet and City are expected to appeal the decision, having long maintained their innocence in relation to the unprecedented charges that they breached top flight financial rules.

Although the case is unprecedented in scale, it has been claimed that City could be relegated or stripped of titles if found guilty.

reported on Friday that City had been found guilty of 114 charges by the panel.

City have been accused by the Premier League of failing to provide accurate financial information and details of payments to players and coaches. They have also been accused of breaches of Uefa’s financial fair play regulations and the league’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).

Manchester City said in a statement: “The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements to be completed, and subject to strict confidentiality. As such Manchester City FC’s position remains consistent with the club’s statement of February 2023.

“The club has diligently respected due process for eight years on the basis that the Premier League board and executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from partisan influence.”

The Premier League refused to comment.

Fans on all sides are angry and desperate for a conclusion

The impacts of the delay are drawing permanent grooves in stone. In most other scenarios, outrage fatigue would have taken over. But here’s the thing: outrage fatigue doesn’t really exist in football. Anger is self-sustaining and there is always enough to go around.

People aren’t getting less fed up as the months tick on, they’re getting more. That includes those on all sides of the affair: Manchester City supporters, rival supporters, a massive mass of the rest of us who just want it over so we can avoid watching a division caught in suspension.

Conspiracy theory noise has become the currency of the league.

And it’s exhausting. Everybody is angry because they have a firm opinion on something as yet unknowable. Everybody is conspiratorial because nobody trusts silence even when silence is appropriate. Everybody is weary because it’s been dragging on for what feels like half a lifetime.

What next? Could Man City be relegated?

A verdict will merely be the starting pistol for another prolonged battle, legal experts told The i Paper last year, with an appeal process potentially lasting several months – at least.

The length of the process could also depend on the potential punishment. With the precedent of points deductions being handed to Everton and Nottingham Forest for financial breaches, City could face a huge deduction themselves.

With regards to possible relegation, outright expulsion from the Premier League is far more “complex” and would require a vote among top-flight clubs.

“The issue of whether Manchester City might be expelled from the Premier League is a complex one,” Aaryaman Banerji, head of football governance at investment consultants Lane, Clark & Peacock, told The i Paper.

“Rule B6 of the Premier League’s Handbook stipulates that, in order to trigger the expulsion of one of its members, clubs would have to vote as part of a Special Resolution.

“This would require 15 clubs to vote in favour of expulsion. It will be instructive to see whether the Independent Commission is held to this requirement, or whether this might be worked around, so that the Commission can itself impose such a sanction.”

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Carlos Hurtado, a sports lawyer with Baker McKenzie, also told The i Paper that the threat to City of multiple compensation claims from rival clubs is “real and serious”.

The charges span a nine-year period from 2009 to 2018 where City won the title three times. Manchester United were twice runners-up in 2012 and 2018, while Liverpool finished second behind City in 2014.

“Retrospective compensation is something that is being considered by everybody,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire added.