Stan Collymore thinks Manchester City will be in “complete meltdown” if Everton are severely punished over allegedly breaching financial rules.
At the start of this year, it was revealed that Man City have been charged by the Premier League over breaches of the league’s financial rules.
The Treble winners – who are seventh in the 2023 Premier League net spend table – are facing over 100 charges relating to their alleged wrongdoing between 2019 and 2018. It remains to be seen how they will be punished (if they are at all) and there has been very little said about the case in recent months.
Everton are facing their own charges and it was claimed earlier this week that the Premier League have asked an independent commission to severely punish Sean Dyche’s side, with a 12-point deduction recommended.
Collymore thinks recent developments suggest the Premier League are “prepping the footballing public as to the severity” of potential sanctions.
“I think it’s really simple. The Premier League are quite prevalent at briefing journalists and if they’re throwing a 12 point deduction at Everton, which is a significant sanction against one club, for the 114/115 charges that are facing Man City, they’re effectively saying ‘we’re ready, our lawyers are across all of this now, and as an organisation we will not accept it’,” Collymore told Caught Offside.
“Manchester City’s lawyers have tried to kick things into the long grass for quite a number of years now and these aren’t fresh charges.
“The Premier League are almost prepping the footballing public as to the severity. Most people would look at Everton and say they feel a little bit for them. They’ve had a shaky time and they’ve never offended anybody, and they come from a great footballing city.”
Collymore also thinks the Premier League could “throw the book at Man City” and send them “towards the bottom of the pyram” at them.
“If the Premier League can go straight away bang 12 points that might relegate them for the first time in I think 70 years, they would have no qualms whatsoever in throwing the book at Man City,” Collymore added.
“Even if just a quarter of those charges were proven, there is a situation where Manchester City will not only be bounced out of the Premier League, but thrown towards the bottom of the pyramid.
“The stakes are so great now it could mean an absolute meltdown for Man City, to the kind of proportions that Rangers suffered in Scotland when they fell foul of paying players via elaborate schemes.
“The Premier League only have the remit to be able to kick them out of the Premier League of course, but the Football Association and the Football League won’t want them in the top divisions of their competition either. City will go to the very bottom of the pile.”
