Sky Bet report that a whopping 65 per cent of the bets placed with them on sides to be relegated from the Premier League this season have been placed on reigning champions Manchester City.
Currently available at 10/1 to go down, the huge market for Manchester City's relegation will be motivated by the 115 alleged breaches of the league's financial fair play rules from 2009-2018.
Relegation from the league and points deductions are among the potential punishments facing City, with hearing expected to last around two months reportedly set to commence on September 16. Sky Sports add that a decision is unlikely to be made public before spring next year, however.
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The Athletic report that the Premier League may favour a points deduction so monstrously large as to effectively relegate City, quoting one anonymous league executive as saying: “The collective view I’ve heard is that an appropriate sanction would have to be a points deduction so substantial — we are talking here between 70 and 80 points — that it guarantees City a season in the Championship.”
That had led to City's relegation odds tumbling down from 25/1 in May, and Sky Bet have tweeted to reveal that nearly two-thirds of the bets in their relegation market have been placed on City.
Brighton and Hove Albion are the next most popular (6 per cent of bets), followed by Ipswich Town (4 per cent), Southampton and Nottingham Forest (both 3 per cent), and Everton and Brentford (2 per cent).
The largest points deduction ever handed out in English football to date is the 30 point penalty levied against then-League Two Luton Town in 2008/09: ten points for financial misconduct, and a further 20 for not having come out of administration per league rules.
Nottingham Forest and Everton both had points deducted last season for breaches of Premier League profit and sustainability rules, but avoided the drop regardless.
City's 115 charges were brought against them in February 2023, but the complex nature and quantity of the alleged offences has made the issue for more delicate and difficult to pursue than the very straightforward profit-based offences Forest and Everton were penalised for.
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