Manchester City’s guilty verdict on the Premier League’s financial charges has led to calls for every punishment imaginable - including, from some voices, criminal proceedings against many of the past and present City employees involved.

In the days since the ruling, a number of prominent figures have questioned whether the findings ought to be a matter for the police as much as for an independent commission.

That clamour has grown loud enough to warrant a response from the force on City’s own doorstep. And on that front, at least, the news offers the club a measure of reassurance.

Addressing the speculation, Greater Manchester Police made clear that no criminal inquiry is under way, pointing to the absence of any formal complaint.

“No referral has been made by the relevant authorities in relation to any alleged criminal offences,” the force said in a statement to the Manchester Evening News.

The wording is significant. While it stops well short of permanently ruling the possibility out, the statement confirms that, as things stand, City are not the subject of a police investigation and no official body has asked the force to examine the case.

The GMP statement followed mounting pressure from figures who believe the commission’s findings demand intervention from outside of football.

The panel concluded that City had “clearly intended to circumvent Premier League rules” across nine seasons, ruling that the club had run a scheme worth almost £1 billion, built on “sham” arrangements designed to drive up revenues or push down costs.

David Bernstein, once chairman of both Manchester City and the Football Association, argued the case needed to be “looked at by outside authorities”, while Lord Cruddas, a Conservative peer, went further still. 

“Surely the Man City findings are now a police matter,” Crudas reportedly said. “If accounts have been falsified and auditors have been misled, then it is potentially a criminal matter.”

As it stands, those calls have not translated into any action from GMP, whose statement draws a clear line under the question of police involvement at this stage.

The verdict itself remains the headline. Richard Masters, the Premier League's chief executive, called the case and its outcome “the most significant in Premier League history”, the culmination of an investigation that began back in 2018 and saw more than 100 charges brought in February 2023.

City moved immediately to confirm they will appeal, insisting the ruling “contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe”. A separate panel from the one that delivered the verdict will now turn to the question of sanctions, with the club’s punishment yet to be decided.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham addressed the matter separately, urging against a rush to conclusions and saying it would be a mistake to “leap to judgment” while the club exercises its right to appeal.

The threat of a criminal inquiry may have receded, at least for the moment, but the far bigger fight - over the sanctions to come and the appeal City have promised - is only getting started.