Man City FFP: Lineker votes for punishment 'blessing' amid 'talk of Premier League conspiracy'

Gary Lineker has picked what he believes will be the likely punishment for Manchester City and explains what would be a "blessing" amid "talk of Premier League conspiracy theories". City have been found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges brought against them by the Premier League as an independent panel found them to have made 'sham' payments to the tune of £900m to boost their coffers between 2009 and 2018.

The club continue to profess their innocence and have now appealed the verdict, insisting that 'irrefutable evidence' will see a new panel rule in their favour. They shouldn't hold out much hope asten grounds for said appeal will almost certainly come to nothing.

City could be given a significant fine, face transfer bans, a hefty points deduction and expulsion from the Premier League. It's also been suggested that they could have the titles they won during that period stripped, and Lineker believes that's a likely course of action after a finding that will also be hugely damaging to the Premier League.

MAILBOX:Liverpool titles to be stripped if Man City prove Coutinho cheating? Speaking at Leaders Week London 2026 at Stamford Bridge, Lineker said: "It looks really bad for Manchester City.

When they talk about the Premier League conspiracy theories, you just think to yourself, well, this is actually the last thing in the world that the Premier League would want. So, I'd love to see City now just own it and just say, 'OK, we got it wrong but for the good of the game, we'll accept it, accept whatever punishment comes our way and we'll carry on.

That would be a blessing and they could save their face a little bit. At the moment that doesn't look very likely.

I wouldn't be surprised if it goes down the route of titles being stripped. It's going to be one of those punishments, and it has to be, obviously, severe, because we are talking about a lot of offences.

So it's going to be difficult, and everyone will have a different idea of what this should be. It's not something I've really experienced very often in my career.

I remember when English clubs were banned from Europe, and it cost me playing in the European Cup for Everton. So, again, players will suffer from this, and that's that."