Manchester City's potential relegation to the Championship poses a problem for Haaland, Donnarumma and the team's other champions. Contracts would not be automatically terminated, but the new rules of the English second division could force the club to reduce the composition of the squad. Erling Haaland could find himself in the second division with a very rich contract, valid until 2034. Gianluigi Donnarumma, on the other hand, has a contract that ends in 2030.
This is one of the most sensational scenarios that could unfold if Manchester City were to be penalized with a points deduction sufficient to take them to the Championship. The two champions, like the other stars of the team, would not automatically gain the right to move elsewhere. For the English club, there would be another complication: a new financial rule of the Championship, which, under certain conditions, could even lead to the obligation to sell players.
The Premier League's independent Financial Fair Play (FFP) committee has found Manchester City liable for 114 of 115 charges of financial misconduct. The club has appealed and the sanctions have not yet been determined. According to preliminary information from the Daily Mail, among the possibilities is a punishment so severe that it would prevent the club from avoiding relegation, possibly accompanied by another sanction in the following season.
What would happen to Haaland's and others' contracts?
The first issue relates to the agreements already signed. Haaland signed a ten-year contract in January 2025, until 2034, while Donnarumma is tied to Manchester City until 2030. According to British media reports, the contracts of City players do not include clauses that would allow them to automatically become free agents in the event of relegation.
Therefore, players cannot consider themselves free simply because they would have to play in the Championship. Any potential departure would have to be through a sale, loan or other agreement with the club, unless there are other specific contractual terms that have not been made public.
The case would also include Ruben Dias, Phil Foden, Guardiola, Cherki and other protagonists of a team built to compete at the highest levels of European football. Keeping them all would be an understandable sporting choice for a team aiming to return to the top flight immediately. But, from 2026, the English second division has changed its financial rules.
Why City could be forced to sell their stars
Squad Cost Rules, introduced by the English Football League for the 2026-27 season, set a cap on squad and manager-related spending. The calculation is based on 85% of the relevant revenue and the net balance of transfer transactions, excluding any funding allowed by owners under the regulations. The costs included include wages, bonuses, image rights and other remuneration.
The most subtle innovation concerns the powers of the supervisory body: in case of non-compliance with the limits, the EFL can block the registration of new players, impose spending limits and even require the sale of players. The problem for Manchester City would be to reconcile high-cost multi-year contracts with the income of a lower category. In the last published annual balance sheet, which relates to the 2024-2025 season, the club declared total income of 694.1 million pounds, of which 278.6 million pounds came from television rights.
Relegation would not automatically mean the obligation to sell Haaland or goalkeeper Donnarumma: City could keep the players, respecting the financial parameters, also thanks to the transitional measures foreseen for clubs coming from the Premier League. However, if the costs were to exceed the permitted limits, keeping all the stars would become impossible, also for regulatory reasons. A decision on sanctions against Manchester City has not yet been taken. But the possibility of relegation already raises a question involving some of the most important stars in world football: how many of them could really stay in the Championship?
