Manchester City have been fined by the Premier League for regularly breaking one of its rules.
Man City accepted the breaches and entered into an independently ratified sanction agreement, according to an official statement from the Premier League.
“The breaches occurred in nine Premier League matches during the 2024/25 season,” reads the statement.
What is Premier League Rule L.33, and how did Manchester City break it?
City admitted to multiple breaches of Rule L.33, which relates to timekeeping on Premier League matchdays:
“Any Club which without good reason causes to be delayed either the kick-off of a League Match from the time fixed or the re-start after the half-time interval shall be dealt with under the provisions of [Premier League] rules.”
City accepted culpability in nine breaches in 2024-25, tallying seven delays to the second half and one to kick-off. In the case of December’s derby against Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium, both halves were delayed.
The other affected matches were against Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, West Ham United, Ipswich Town and Newcastle United.
Of the eight late second-half restarts, only one occurred with City losing the match at half time.
The total delay amounted to almost 19 minutes and the subsequent fines add up to more than £1 million.
“Rules relating to kick-offs and re-starts help ensure the organisation of the competition is set at the highest possible professional standard and provides certainty to fans and participating clubs,” states the Premier League.
“It also ensures the broadcast of every Premier League match is kept to schedule.”
Premier League rules are set out in the Premier League Rule Book, part of the Premier League Handbook. It “serves as a contract between the League [and] the Member Clubs” and runs to more than 200 pages of the 767-page monolith.
The sanction agreement, through which City agree to both the fact of the nine breaches and the fine handed down to them in each case by the Premier League, is ratified by the signatures of Disciplinary Panel members Alan Greenwood, Dr Leanne O’Leary and Kwadjo Adjepong.
The details of the signatories from both the Premier League and Manchester City are redacted in the publicly available copy of the agreement.
City’s lack of punctuality did little to help their fortunes in 2024-25. After a long stretch of poor form through the middle of the season they recovered late in the campaign to secure a Champions League spot, finishing in third place behind Liverpool and Arsenal.
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