The question of when will Man City be punished for their alleged financial breaches has been circling English football for years, with a verdict now believed to be imminent.
Legal experts suggest the independent commission examining Manchester City’s case is currently drafting its final decision, expected to be delivered shortly after the current domestic campaign concludes.
That would bring to an end a process that has dragged on for well over a year since the formal hearing took place.
The Premier League initially charged City in February 2023 for alleged breaches of financial rules spanning a nine-year period between 2009 and 2018, with the independent commission hearing concluding in December 2024.
Since then, the football world has been left waiting for a ruling that could reshape the record books of an entire era.
More than 16 months on from closing arguments, a judgment is still awaited, with City continuing to deny any wrongdoing.
The timeline for when Man City will be punished has shifted multiple times across the past year.
While early reports suggested an outcome could arrive during the Easter 2026 window, the latest understanding is that the timeline has slipped into the summer of the same year.
Reports from mid-March indicated that sources connected to both the Premier League and Manchester City had received zero official updates from the independent panel.
City stand accused of 80 breaches of financial rules between 2009 and 2018, plus a further 35 charges of failing to cooperate with a Premier League investigation, with some estimates placing the total number of potential infractions even higher.
The potential punishments, should City be found guilty, range considerably in severity.
A separate hearing would then be required to determine specific sanctions, which could range from heavy fines to significant points deductions, with expulsion from the top flight cited as the most extreme possible outcome.
Once a verdict is reached, both Manchester City and the Premier League will have 14 days to appeal, with any appeal heard by a newly appointed three-person panel.
That appeals process would delay any enforcement of punishments further, meaning the full resolution of when Man City will be punished could extend well into 2027.
The final decision will be binding, with no option for either side to take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Premier League CEO Richard Masters has declined to offer any public update on the timeline, citing the confidential nature of the proceedings.
The case remains the single biggest off-field story in English football, with stakes high enough to rewrite the history of a dominant decade.