Man City star’s agent reveals what the club has told players about guilty verdict ‘chaos’ before Liverpool clash
Gianluigi Donnarumma’s agent has revealed what Manchester City have told his client about the club’s guilty verdict ahead of their clash with Liverpool on Sunday.
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.
The appeal will be heard by a three-person commission and is expected to last no more than 12 weeks, with an outcome due within 30 days of its conclusion.
They shouldn’t hold out much hope as ten 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.
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Demotion from the Premier League would inevitably lead to a fire sale as many of their top quality stars won’t want to stick around in a lower division and the club wouldn’t be able to afford their wages in any case.
But Donnarumma’s agent, Enzo Raiola, has revealed that “everyone is calm” as things stand after the City goalkeeper “received assurances” from his club.
Speaking to Radio Napoli Centrale, Raiola explained: “The Manchester City chaos, can it change anything? No, it will change nothing for us or for us.
“Every so often some story comes out. The club have spoken to Gigio; everyone is calm.
“Now there are important matches against Liverpool and PSG, then sporting justice will take its course. But Gigio has received reassurances from Manchester City.”
Gary Lineker believes City are likely to be stripped of their titles and explained what would be a “blessing” amid “talk of Premier League conspiracy theories”.
Speaking at Leaders Week London 2026 at Stamford Bridge, Lineker said: “It looks really bad for Manchester City. It really does. 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. But it is damaging. I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes down the route of titles being stripped.
“Ultimately, who suffers from that? Players and fans. 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.”
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