Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp made a promise in the event that Premier League revoke Manchester City’s titles over alleged financial rule breaches. The German’s Liverpool side played second fiddle to Pep Guardiola’s unstoppable City machine twice, losing by the slimmest of margins – just a single point in both the nail-biting 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons.
In February 2023, the Premier League referred Manchester City to an independent commission over 115 alleged breaches of financial regulations between 2009 and 2018 – a number that has since ballooned to 130 charges. Dubbed the “trial of the century,” it now looks as though City are going to face some kind of punishment.
In September 2026, it was revealed that the Etihad outfit had now been found guilty of all but one of the charges. It’s too early to know what sanctoins Man City could face, but there has long been talk about the club being stripped of titles.
Should that happen, and Liverpool pick up any beltaed Premier League trophies, Klopp is poised to celebrate and make up for lost time for the many near-misses his Liverpool side endured during his nine-year tenure at Anfield.
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Jurgen Klopp gives a thumb up in the stands at Anfield
Klopp is now the Germany head coach, but when making his debut public appearance as Red Bull’s head of global soccer, the 59-year-old found himself unable to sidestep one pressing questions in January 2025. He was asked about how he would react should the commission find City guilty and remove the league titles from their honours list and give his Liverpool side them instead. Per ESPN, Klopp responded:
“We had this discussion when I left. I haven’t spent a lot of time in Mallorca because I am always flying around the place. But if it would happen, I told all the people who wanted to [come]: ‘Just book a flight to Mallorca. I will buy the beer!’ We’d have our own parade in my garden.”
It’s worth noting that as City are also being questioned over breaches between 2009 and 2018, Liverpool would likely only get one league title handed to them belatedly and this wouldn’t actually come from the Klopp era. It would instead go to Brendan Rogers team of 2013/14, which could mean Steven Gerrard could forget all about his infamous slip.
The Reds would not finish second under Klopp until 2018/19. So it’s unclear if that title would be stipped of City as well, as it was lifted outside of the perdiod of alleged breaches.
Man City at Risk of Potential ’60-Point Punishment’
Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca before the match
REUTERS/Isabel Infantes
Before the news that they had been found guilty had emerged, many wondered what sort of punishment could be dished out. Beyond stripping titles, one expert has warned that a 60-point deduction would be ‘logical’ if found guilty – an outcome that would relegate City from the Premier League to the Championship if it was imposed this season.
“I think we’re probably into the final reaches of getting a decision” Football finance expert Kieran Maguire recently said on The Overlap, per FourFourTwo. “I think part of the challenge has been that there are three very senior people who are making that final judgment. Getting those three together at the same time is actually very difficult. So that’s delayed the case.”
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He added: “The Premier League cannot relegate Manchester City to League One or League Two because that is an EFL decision and Manchester City have not had any charges proven against them by the EFL. Therefore, it has to be a points deduction.
“If we take a look at precedence, we have had Everton and Nottingham Forest with six and four-point deductions for a single offence covering a three-year period. The accusations against Manchester City cover a nine-year period, so it is far bigger.
“The numbers involved we are not certain about, but they are likely to be quite significant. I think you have to add a zero to what we’ve seen in terms of Forest and Everton, so somewhere between a 40 and 60-point deduction would be, on merit to be consistent with what we’ve seen with other decisions, would make a lot of logic.”
In terms of other punishments, there is also the chance that City could face a transfer ban, be expelled from the Premier League completely, and of course face a huge fine for their breaches.
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