According to The Sun, PREMIER LEAGUE clubs would have to VOTE to boot Manchester City out of the division – even if the independent commission recommends their expulsion. But the clubs would NOT have any need to agree to accept a points deduction which would effectively condemn City to the drop.

While City chiefs remain adamant that they will win their appeal, rival clubs are already demanding heavy punishments.

Under new regulations agreed by the 20 top flight clubs in the summer, City’s appeal – with the hearing lasting no more than five days and in a single block – must be completed by December 24.

The appeals board would then have just 30 days to come back with its decision.

A failed appeal would then see the two sides summoned for a sanctions hearing – although that tribunal could still sit BEFORE the appeal begins.

Prem rules mean the commission has the right to impose or recommend any sanction, from a fine up to expulsion.

Prem lawyers would argue the case for their preferred sanction, with City equally entitled to put forward their case for a lesser punishment, although the commission has the right to ignore both sides’ positions when the decision is handed down.

Sanctions – including points deduction, fines, transfer bans or orders that City would not be able to represent the Prem in Uefa or Fifa competitions – would be enacted immediately pending the final sentence being published.

Yet Rule B6 states: “The League may expel a Club from membership upon a special Resolution to that effect being passed by a majority of not less than three-quarters of such members as (being entitled to do so) vote by their representatives or by proxy at a General Meeting of which notice specifying the intention to propose the Resolution has been duly given.”

That would mean 15 of the 20 clubs would have to agree with the proposal for City to be sent packing.

If that threshold was not reached, then the proposal would fail, meaning an even bigger mess.

City are still determined to win their appeal, convinced that they have already presented evidence that should nullify and overturn the commission’s “opinion” after the club accused the three-man tribunal of buying the “Premier League’s conspiracy theories”.

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