Manchester City may have been handed an unexpected 'get out of jail free card' regarding potential expulsion from the top flight, according to reports citing senior Premier League executives.
Rival club chiefs have reportedly admitted they would be 'staggered' if a required 15-club majority voted to kick the club out of the Premier League on the back of Man City's guilty verdict.
Clubs apparently acknowledge that removing Man City would inflict significant damage on global television rights and central revenues, which almost all Premier League member clubs rely heavily on.
Manchester City's fate could lie in the hands of their rivals
The Premier League operates as a private company jointly owned by its 20 member clubs, with each team holding one equal vote as a shareholder.
For standard rule changes, passing a motion requires a two-thirds majority of 14 clubs. However, major sanctions, such as expelling a team, requires a higher three-quarters supermajority threshold of 15 clubs to all vote the same.
Despite the artificially inflated commercial revenues Man City posted between 2009 and 2018, the club are still believed to be one of the league leaders when it comes to global commercial appeal and international broadcast valuations. Therefore, rival boardrooms are likely to take a dim view of expelling the Etihad club from the top flight.
In essence, voting for City's expulsion would in many cases hit clubs in their own pocket.
Shareholder votes are triggered whenever the league introduces policy changes, alters financial sustainability frameworks, or addresses major operational decisions.
Clubs voted 14 - 6, meeting the minimum threshold required, to replace the Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) with UEFA-aligned Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) spending caps based on revenue.
Previous shareholder meetings saw tightly contested votes over the decision to retain VAR and the phased transition from three to five substitutions.
Two senior executives at different top-level Premier League clubs have told Sky Sports News they would be “staggered” and “amazed” if there were 15 clubs ready to vote to expel Manchester City from the Premier League. pic.twitter.com/H5XawniRJrOctober 1, 2026
Amendments governing sponsorship deals with owner-linked entities - known as Associated Party Transactions (APT) - meanwhile, required a number of voting rounds to establish fair market value guidelines.
As of 7pm on Thursday, October 1 Man City have submitted their appeal against the independent commission's findings. All parties must now await the binding verdict from an independent appeals panel, which will determine whether the original verdict will be upheld, amended, or overturned.
From there, if the ruling is upheld, it is expected Manchester City will be punished severely with the possibility of expulsion from the Premier League not off the table. Implementing it, however, is a different matter as club executives are likely to be reluctant to undermine the commercial advantages the division currently enjoys.
