Copenhagen, Tuesday morning. In a sleek conference room hosting the board of European Football Clubs, Manchester City's chief executive Ferran Soriano stands before some of the most powerful executives in the game — representatives of Manchester United, Roma, and dozens of other clubs — and delivers a message that is anything but an apology. It has taken eight years to reach this point, he tells them, and it is going to take a lot more time. Then he walks out, leaving every question from the waiting press corps unanswered.

The moment crystallises just how explosive City's situation has become. On Friday, it emerged that an independent panel had found the club guilty of the vast majority of the 115 charges the Premier League brought against them in 2018. The accusations centre on claims that City inflated sponsorship revenue through payments from connected companies and made undisclosed financial arrangements to get around the league's strict financial rules. The scale of the alleged rule-breaking is described by legal observers as unprecedented in English football.

What happens next remains genuinely uncertain. Sanctions have not yet been announced, but the options available to the panel are severe: a points deduction, a massive fine, or even expulsion from the Premier League altogether. Other clubs are already seeking legal advice on whether they can claim financial compensation, given that City's alleged conduct — if confirmed — distorted competition across an entire decade. City's chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, in a carefully lawyered letter to supporters, insisted the club's confidence in proving its innocence is just as strong as when this began.