Manchester City scandal: Is Riyad Mahrez at risk of losing his four Premier League titles?

City contests and appeals

Manchester City rejects these findings. The club expressed its "disappointment" and "surprise." It claims that the decision contains significant errors of law, principle, and fact. It announced that it will utilize all available avenues for appeal. Its chief executive, Ferran Soriano, referred to a "conspiracy theory" from the Premier League.

No sanctions have been imposed yet. A separate hearing before the same commission will determine this, and the club's appeal is expected to proceed in parallel. Possible sanctions range from fines to point deductions, recruitment bans, and even expulsion from the league. Additionally, David Bernstein, City’s chairman from 1998 to 2003, has himself advocated for the club's expulsion if the appeal fails.

Mahrez's four titles outside the sanctioned period

Riyad Mahrez has won the Premier League four times with Manchester City: in 2018-2019, 2020-2021, 2021-2022, and 2022-2023. He left the club in 2023 with a total of eleven trophies, including the Champions League won the same year as part of a historic treble.

His first title remains one of the most contested in the league's history. On the final day in May 2019, City won 4-1 at Brighton, with a goal from Mahrez. Thus, he finished the season with 98 points, one more than Liverpool.

The timeline works in his favor. All his titles were won after the 2009 to 2018 period related to the financial violations. The three championships won by City during that period, in 2011-2012, 2013-2014, and 2017-2018, are the most vulnerable.

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The only link: non-cooperation from 2018 to 2023

One aspect of the case, however, relates to Mahrez's years. The accusations of non-cooperation concern the period from 2018 to 2023, during which City allegedly obstructed the investigation. The commission noted several of these breaches. They do not pertain to the sporting results of those seasons but to the club's behavior towards the investigators.

This distinction is crucial to understanding the significance of the ruling. If the breaches related to non-cooperation are proven, they do not undermine the sporting legitimacy of the titles won during that period, as they concern administrative issues rather than falsified results.

Title withdrawal remains hypothetical

There is currently no indication that titles will be annulled. The sanctions mentioned by the Premier League do not explicitly include this possibility. Moreover, no sanctions can be applied until the procedure and appeal are concluded. If a withdrawal were to be considered, it would first target the seasons of the sanctioned period. Therefore, it would not affect those of Mahrez.

For the Algerian, the risk remains limited. However, this case, which began in 2018 with the revelations from Football Leaks published by the German magazine Der Spiegel, is far from over. Indeed, the timeline for the hearing on sanctions and the appeal has not yet been disclosed.

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