Manchester City was fined more than £1 million after nine Premier League violations in 2024/25

Manchester City was fined more than £1 million for delaying the kick-off or restarting in nine matches last season. The league announced Thursday that it had reached a sanctions agreement with the club for violating the league’s rules on kickoff and restart times between October and February. The longest delay was 2 minutes and 24 seconds before the recovery of the Manchester derby in Old Trafford last December.

9 nine games that resulted in Manchester City's good results...

vs Southampton (Main) - October 26, 2024 (restart delay: 2:10

vs Tottenham Hotspur (Main) - November 23, 2024 (telephone delay: 1:38)

vs Nottingham Forest (Main) - December 4, 2024 (restart delay: 1:59)

vs Crystal Palace (Main) - December 7, 2024 (restart delay: 1:29)

vs Manchester United (Main) – December 15, 2024 (Delayed kickoff: 1:18; Delayed restart: 2:24)

vs Aston Villa (Visit) – December 21, 2024 (Delayed restart: 2:9)

vs West Ham United (Main) – January 4, 2025 (Delayed restart: 1:42)

vs Ipswich Town (Visit) – January 19, 2025 (Delayed restart: 2:22)

vs Newcastle (Main) – February 15, 2025 Day (Late of Restart: 1:42 seconds)

Premier League said that Manchester City had accepted and apologized for violations of Rule L.33, with a total fine of £1.08m.

League stated that Manchester City had 14 days to pay for the amount of the sanctions agreement. A statement from the league said: "The rules related to the kickoff and restart help ensure that the organization of the game meets the highest professional standards possible and provide certainty for fans and participating clubs. "It also ensures that every Premier League game is broadcast as planned."

What is Rule L.33?

Rule L.33 stipulates:

No club has any reasonable reason to cause a delay in the start of the league match starting from a fixed time or a game restart after a half-time break should be handled under this rule W-Section (Discipline) regulations. Last summer, City was fined more than £2 million for 22 violations of kick-off and restart rules during the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons.

This issue has nothing to do with the 115 charges faced by Manchester City for alleged violations of the game’s financial regulations, which the club explicitly denied.

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