Chris Kavanagh to referee Manchester City game and why his job will be a disaster

European football's big-money transfer spending is putting Manchester City in the spotlight again after Everton were fined 10 points for breaching financial rules.  Everton received a 10-point sanction that placed them in the penultimate position in the Premier League, with only four points and a complicated situation for the remainder of the season. Now, questions have begun to be raised about whether the same decision could be taken with clubs such as Manchester City and Chelsea, who are pending sanctions for financial control cases. Manchester City have 115 cases pending against them for breaches of financial regulations, and it has even been suggested that their sanction could be higher and could lead to relegation from the Premier League.

"For me, 10 points for Everton seems harsh for a simple FFP infringement. But it reinforces that the sanctions against City (if proven) and now Chelsea (if collected and admitted in unrecorded payments) could induce relegation," Stefan Borson, a lawyer who has advised City on these matters, wrote on his X - formerly Twitter - account. "One thing is for sure, given the magnitude of this sporting sanction, Chelsea's calculation [in my opinion] that they could breach PL P&S [Profit & Sustainability] and simply accept a fine as a cost of doing business, should be on urgent and immediate reconsideration. The January window could be interesting. Even in the best case scenario, they can no longer rely on being able to convince an Independent Commission to accept their Covid and Sanctions allocations as exceptional adjustments (to the extent that was the plan)," he added.

Meanwhile, The Times journalist Martyn Ziegler said that the option of relegation for Manchester City and Chelsea is viable, as there are precedents. "I think it will be much more serious for both Manchester City and Chelsea if their charges are proven. I mean Man City have received 115 charges, Everton only had one and Chelsea are still under investigation, so we don't know the number of charges there. If you look at Manchester City, there are many more charges, but they are much more serious. So Manchester City will have a real fear that they will face possible relegation from the Premier League," he told talkSPORT. However, he made it clear that the complexity of the cases means they will not be resolved in the short term: "The City case is not likely to be resolved for at least two years.

Chris Kavanagh is a Manchester City fan

In the last few hours it has been announced that Chris Kavanagh will referee Saturday's match at the Etihad between Liverpool and Manchester City. Since then, rumours have been flying around that the referee is a City fan and even had his season ticket and was born very close to the stadium, which is seen as a reason for him to be a disastrous referee for this game.