FOOTBALL'S BIGGEST PUNISHMENTS! Triple relegations, eye-watering fines and record points deductions as Man City await their fate

We waited three-and-a-half years, and now we wait again.

Manchester City have been found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges levelled at them by the Premier League back in February 2023. The club continue to deny any financial wrongdoing and insist that they'll clear their name.

But the conversation has quickly shifted to the potential punishment. Could City be relegated and their owners forced to leave? How about a rolling points deduction and a transfer ban? Or might they get away with just a fine?

Mirror Football looks back at some of the biggest punishments for breaching financial rules in football history.

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If you thought that last season's Championship play-off final was controversial, get a load of 1990's. Ten days after Swindon Town beat Sunderland 1-0 at Wembley to secure promotion to the old First Division, the club were found guilty of making illegal payments to players.

Not only were Swindon stripped of promotion and replaced in the top flight by Sunderland, Ossie Ardiles' side were sent down to the third tier. Tranmere Rovers were due to replace them in what's now known as the Championship, but following an appeal, Swindon's punishment was reduced to a one-division relegation.

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Ever feel like you've suffered the consequences of what someone else did? Well, in 1994, Tottenham were fined £600,000, thrown out of the FA Cup and docked 12 points after being found guilty of making illegal payments to players under their previous ownership.

With Alan Sugar now running the club, Spurs informed the FA themselves but were still dealt rough justice. Upon appeal, however, Tottenham saw both their cup ban and points deduction overturned, although the fine was raised to £1.5million.

To this day, Luton Town's 30-point deduction remains the largest in English football history. Having initially been docked 10 points ahead of the 2008-09 season and fined £50,000, it was soon found that the Hatters had broke the EFL's rules by leaving administration without having made a Company Voluntary Arrangement with its creditors.

The Football League offered Luton the chance to continue playing in League Two on the condition that they were deducted a further 20 points. They appealed, of course, but it was thrown out and Mick Harford's men were relegated to non-league for the first time in their history, finishing rock bottom of the table.

Go on social media and you'll find plenty of memes about Manchester City playing in the fourth division. But for Scottish giants Rangers, it was reality.

In July 2012, Rangers were denied entry into the Scottish Premier League due to the club's liquidation. A vote subsequently took place between the chairmen of Scottish Football League clubs to determine where Rangers would land.

Twenty-five of the 30 clubs decided that it would be the fourth tier, sparking what could've been years in the wilderness at Ibrox. Fortunately for Rangers, who also received a 12-month transfer ban, they won back-to-back promotions before returning to the top flight in 2016.

From big spenders in the Premier League to fighting for survival in the Championship, the first half of the 2010s for Queens Park Rangers was tumultuous to say the least. Their problems off the pitch were exacerbated by issues in the boardroom, too.

QPR were ordered to pay a world-record £40m fine in 2017 after the club lost its a three-year battle after being found guilty of breaching Financial Fair Play rules during the 2013-14 season when they were promoted back to the Premier League. The Rs would, though, reach a settlement with the EFL the following year, agreeing to pay £42m.

The settlement was made up of a £17m fine, the EFL's legal costs worth £3m and an agreement from club shareholders to write off £22m of outstanding loans. QPR, who'd argued that the existing FFP rules were unlawful, were also placed under a brief transfer embargo.

Manchester City have been here before. In February 2020, the reigning Premier League champions were slapped with a two-year ban from UEFA club competitions over 'serious breaches' of FFP regulations between 2012 and 2016.

But five months later, the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced that City had been cleared of 'disguising equity funds as sponsorship contributions'. Their fine was also reduced from €30m (£26.9m at the time) to €10m (£9m).

That season, City came closer than ever to winning the Champions League before losing 1-0 in the final to Chelsea. Two years later, Pep Guardiola's team would finally get their hands on it.

As if the ignominy of only being able to qualify for the Conference League wasn't enough, Juventus didn't even get to play in the competition during the 2023-24 season. The punishment came after the CFCB First Chamber (an independent judicial body responsible club finances) concluded that the Serie A heavyweights had breached the UEFA's regulatory framework and went against a settlement agreement which had been signed in August 2022.

Fiorentina, who'd finished eighth the season prior, replaced Juventus in the Conference League and went on to reach the final. UEFA also ordered Juventus to cough up a fine worth £17.14m, although they'd only have to pay half of that amount if their financial records for the next three years complied with regulations.

UEFA's verdict compounded a woeful few years for the Bianconceri. Former president Andrea Agnelli, as well as other members of the board, had resigned after Juventus were found guilty of false accounting.

It also saw Juventus deducted 15 points. Even those who'd already left the Allianz Stadium were punished, with Tottenham managing director of football Fabio Paratici given a 30-month worldwide ban by FIFA.