Martin Keown reveals sources have told him when to expert Man City punishment – ‘won’t be as bad as we think’

Manchester City will learn the outcome of their appeal in around six weeks’ time. That’s according to Martin Keown , although his talkSPORT colleague Simon Jordan has suggested that the process will take even longer. On September 29, it was announced that City were found guilty on all charges relating to Premier League financial rule breaches from 2009 to 2018. The club used ‘sham’ contracts to artificially inflate their revenue by more than £900million, broke spending limits and did not show full cooperation during the investigation. City launched an appeal on October 2, and claim they are backed by a ‘comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence’ . As per new Premier League rules, the appeal hearing must take place within 12 weeks of it being made, last just five days and then reveal a decision within 30 days of it ending. David Kogan, the head of the Independent Football Regulator, says an outcome is expected in the early part of 2027 . However, Arsenal legend Keown told White and Jordan on talkSPORT that he has heard speculation of the decision being revealed before the end of 2026. When could City learn appeal outcome? “They’re resolute, they believe that they’re right, and their owners are giving them that firm message, ‘irrefutable evidence’ will be revealed, so they’re holding onto that,” he said on the City fans. “There is a feeling… I’m hearing rumours that this will all be over in a number of weeks.” Jordan dismissed this idea, but Keown responded: “I’m just telling you what I’m hearing. In six weeks or so, we’ll see what’s going to happen, and it won’t be nearly as bad as we think it might be. “Maybe they get off with huge fines and we return to the football pitch again.” As Keown mentioned, hefty fines are among possible sanctions for City if their appeal fails, as well as points deductions, stripped titles and relegation. Premier League clubs are understood to want the case to be resolved this season , inclusive of appeals, with City top of the table thanks to seven wins from seven matches. But former Crystal Palace owner Jordan believes that the appeal process will not follow its new rules and take longer than it should do. Hold owners more to account rather than blindly following them? “Well, not until the final nail has been whacked in their disingenuous coffin, no,” he said on whether City fans should hold the owners more to account. “They are convincing those that want to be convinced that there is a conspiracy against them…. “They’re playing it through the press, they’ve done a lot of stuff in the media this weekend with The Telegraph, they will convince people that they’ve been poorly treated, that a panel of independent experts are rather simple and disingenuous, and partisan. “That’s what they’re being able to convince those that are willing to listen to it. The interesting thing is, how will they be able to circumvent it? I don’t know, because they’ve got witnesses that have given evidence, basically said that they’re liars, that they had an intention of lying, and went into independent commissions and lied. “They’re going to play this game, they’re probably going to win their little arguments about how long the appeal should take, because the Premier League probably won’t have the courage to turn around and say, ‘We’ve changed the appeal process, we want this to be a five-day hearing’. “Man City will argue that they shouldn’t have that rule, because the rule wasn’t in place when the charges were originally brought, and the Premier League will probably cower away from it thinking, ‘We don’t want to give them an opportunity to say they weren’t fairly treated, so we’ll probably go back to the longer appeal process’. “None of this, of course, is in the area of irrefutable evidence and integrity to clear up the position as quickly as possible. What we’re going to see is a litany of arguments being run by very sophisticated lawyers that could argue with anything.”