Premier League Punishments: Major Points Deductions, Fines and Transfer Bans

By Club Ten · Published 1 October 2026

On 29 September 2026, the Premier League published the decision of an independent commission in its case against Manchester City. The commission found every substantive financial charge proved and upheld three of four categories concerning the club's cooperation with the investigation.

The result has widely been reported as 114 of 115 charges, although the commission itself organised the allegations into broader categories and did not present its conclusion as one simple tally. City maintain their innocence and have until Friday 2 October to appeal. A separate hearing, for which no date has been announced, will determine the sanction.

Nothing in the Premier League era has approached this scale. But points have been deducted, fines imposed and clubs banned from registering players before. Some of these punishments came from the Premier League, while others were imposed by the FA, FIFA or UEFA against Premier League clubs.

This article reflects the position as of 1 October 2026.

1994: Tottenham's 12-point deduction that disappeared

In June 1994, the FA imposed what was then one of the heaviest punishments in English football history on Tottenham Hotspur. The club were initially given a 12-point deduction for the 1994-95 Premier League season, banned from that season's FA Cup and fined £600,000 over irregular payments made to players under previous ownership.

On appeal, the points deduction was reduced to six, while the fine increased to £1.5 million and the FA Cup ban remained. Tottenham continued fighting the decision, and an arbitration panel eventually removed both the points deduction and the cup ban. The £1.5 million fine remained.

Tottenham therefore never lost points in the final league table, but the case remains important. It demonstrated how dramatically a major sporting sanction could change through the appeals process.

1996: Middlesbrough lose three points over a postponed match

On 21 December 1996, Middlesbrough unilaterally postponed their away fixture against Blackburn Rovers. The club said 23 players were unavailable through illness, injury or suspension, leaving them unable to field a suitable team.

The postponement had not been authorised by the Premier League. Middlesbrough were found to have failed to fulfil a fixture, fined £50,000 and deducted three points. Their appeal was unsuccessful, and the game was eventually played the following April.

Middlesbrough finished the season in 19th place with 39 points and were relegated. Without the deduction, assuming every other result remained unchanged, they would have finished on 42 points and stayed up ahead of Coventry City.

It remains one of the clearest examples of a Premier League punishment directly affecting the relegation table.

2007: West Ham, Carlos Tevez and a record fine

In August 2006, West Ham signed Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano from Corinthians. Undisclosed agreements connected to the transfers gave third-party companies significant contractual influence over the players' registrations and potential future transfers.

West Ham later pleaded guilty to breaching Premier League rules. On 27 April 2007, the club were fined £5.5 million, a Premier League record at the time, but received no points deduction.

Tevez helped West Ham produce a late run of results that kept them in the Premier League, while Sheffield United were relegated. Sheffield United subsequently pursued legal action, arguing that West Ham had gained an unfair advantage. The clubs reached an out-of-court settlement in 2009 for a confidential sum widely reported to be around £20 million.

The controversy was not simply that outside companies held economic rights in the players. The decisive issue was that the undisclosed agreements allowed third parties to influence matters that should have remained under the club's control.

2010: Portsmouth's nine-point deduction

Portsmouth entered administration on 26 February 2010 after months of financial problems, including unpaid wages and tax liabilities. Under Premier League rules, entering administration carried an automatic points penalty.

A nine-point deduction was formally applied on 17 March. It remains the largest final points deduction upheld in a single Premier League disciplinary case.

Portsmouth finished bottom of the table and were relegated. In one of English football's stranger footnotes, the same team reached the FA Cup final that May, losing 1-0 to Chelsea at Wembley.

2019: Chelsea's two-window transfer ban

Chelsea's 2019 punishment came from FIFA rather than the Premier League.

In February 2019, FIFA banned Chelsea from registering new players for two complete and consecutive transfer windows after finding breaches involving the international transfer and registration of players under the age of 18. The club were also fined 600,000 Swiss francs.

Chelsea appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. In December 2019, CAS ruled that breaches had occurred, but reduced the punishment because fewer violations were established than FIFA had originally found.

The transfer ban was reduced to one window, which Chelsea had already served during the summer of 2019. The fine was also halved to 300,000 Swiss francs, allowing Chelsea to register players again from January 2020.

2020: Manchester City's European ban is overturned

In February 2020, UEFA banned Manchester City from European competition for two seasons and fined the club €30 million. UEFA's financial control body said City had committed serious breaches of its Financial Fair Play regulations by overstating sponsorship revenue between 2012 and 2016 and had failed to cooperate with the investigation.

City appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

CAS overturned the European ban after finding that some allegations had not been established to the required standard and that others were time-barred under UEFA's rules. However, City were still found to have failed to cooperate with UEFA's investigation and were fined €10 million.

That case is separate from the Premier League proceedings decided in 2026. It involved a different governing body, different rules and different limitation periods.

2023-24: three PSR deductions involving two clubs

The 2023-24 season brought the Premier League's Profitability and Sustainability Rules into public view. Unlike administration penalties, PSR cases concern whether a club's financial losses have exceeded the limits allowed by league rules.

Everton were initially deducted ten points on 17 November 2023. On 26 February 2024, an appeal board reduced that sanction to six points.

A second and separate Everton PSR case, covering a different assessment period, resulted in another two-point deduction on 8 April. Everton later withdrew their appeal against that punishment, meaning eight points were removed from their total across the season.

Nottingham Forest were deducted four points on 18 March 2024 for their own admitted PSR breach. Their appeal was rejected on 7 May.

Both clubs survived. Everton finished 15th with 40 points, while Forest finished 17th with 32 points, six points clear of relegated Luton Town.

2026: Chelsea receive the Premier League's largest fine

In March 2026, Chelsea accepted two separate sanction agreements after voluntarily reporting potential historical breaches to the Premier League.

The club were fined £10 million over breaches involving financial reporting and third-party payments. Chelsea also received a suspended one-year first-team transfer ban, which will remain suspended for two years.

A separate youth-development case resulted in a further £750,000 fine and an immediate nine-month ban on registering academy players from other Premier League and EFL clubs.

The combined £10.75 million penalty became the largest financial sanction imposed by the Premier League. The league also said its recalculations showed that Chelsea would not have breached PSR limits even if the historical payments had been correctly included.

2026: Manchester City and the "115 charges"

The Manchester City case began with a Premier League investigation prompted by articles published by the German outlet Der Spiegel in November 2018, following a hack of the club's servers the previous year. Formal charges were filed in February 2023, covering conduct between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons.

The complaint became universally known as the "115 charges" case. It covered alleged failures to provide accurate financial information, disclose full details of player and manager payments, comply with Premier League and UEFA spending rules, and cooperate with the investigation.

A 42-day hearing concluded in December 2024. The commission's decision was published on 29 September 2026.

The commission found every substantive financial charge proved and upheld three of the four broad cooperation categories. One cooperation category, Charge 4(B), was not proved. This outcome has widely been calculated and reported as 114 of 115 charges, although that is not how the commission formally summarised its findings.

The commission found that City had used sham sponsorship arrangements, misstated financial information and breached Premier League and UEFA spending rules. According to the Premier League's summary, the arrangements artificially inflated revenue and reduced reported costs by more than £900 million.

Manchester City reject the findings, maintain their innocence and have said they will appeal. The deadline for doing so is Friday 2 October. Any appeal will be considered by a three-person Appeal Board appointed under Premier League rules.

A separate hearing will determine the sanction. Available penalties include a reprimand, an unlimited fine, points deductions, other sporting sanctions and a recommendation that the club be expelled from the Premier League.

Stripping previous titles is not expressly listed as a sanction under Premier League Rule W.51. It has been discussed as a theoretical possibility, but should not be treated as an established or inevitable outcome.

What is actually unprecedented

Previous Premier League punishments have decided relegation battles, prevented clubs from signing players and imposed fines worth millions. None of the cases above, however, approaches the Manchester City proceedings in duration, financial scale or number of alleged breaches.

The investigation began in November 2018. The formal complaint was filed in February 2023. The hearing ended in December 2024, and the decision was not published until September 2026. A sanction has still not been imposed.

Whatever happens next will be measured against a Premier League history in which Portsmouth's nine points remain the largest final deduction upheld in a single case. Think you know your Manchester City history? Play today's Manchester City trivia quiz and find out.

Methodology & sources

Facts and dates have been checked against the commission's redacted core decision in the Manchester City case and Wikipedia's wider overview of the case.

The 2026 Chelsea sanctions were checked against the Premier League's official statement. Portsmouth's and Middlesbrough's deductions were checked against Wikipedia's articles on the 2009-10 Portsmouth season and the 1996-97 Middlesbrough season.

The Chelsea 2019 transfer case was checked against reporting of FIFA's disciplinary decision and the CAS appeal ruling. Manchester City's 2020 European case was checked against reporting of UEFA's original decision and the CAS appeal outcome.

Contemporary reporting was used for the Tottenham and West Ham cases, including coverage of the 1994 FA arbitration ruling and the West Ham disciplinary hearing.