Manchester City could need to lose at least 40 points to drop into the Championship, based on last season’s Premier League figures.
The Daily Mail has reported that Manchester City could face a significant points deduction. Any punishment would raise the question of how many points would have to be removed before the club was relegated.
Manchester City finished as league runners-up last season with 78 points. The relegation line was 39 points, meaning a deduction of 40 points would have taken them below the survival mark in that campaign.
The calculation would be different this season, depending on Manchester City’s final total and the points collected by the teams at the bottom of the table.
Manchester City have won seven consecutive matches this season. If they were to win every remaining fixture, they would finish with 114 points.
At present, the team at the bottom of the league has five points. In the most extreme scenario, Manchester City would therefore need to be deducted 110 points to be certain of finishing below that total.
Those figures illustrate how heavily the impact of a points deduction would depend on the final league standings. A penalty of 40 points would have been enough to send Manchester City below last season’s relegation threshold, but would not necessarily produce the same outcome this season.
The Daily Mail’s report has led to debate over whether Manchester City could be relegated because of a points deduction, how severe any punishment might be and whether such a sanction would be fair.
