Sports   (Talk about balls here.)

"If it was irrelevant to the case why pay a 10 Million fine?"

One would assume that it would be a case of "ok, we accept that it wasn't relevant, but you should have given us that information and let us decide whether it was relevant or not, as a result you have still gone against procedure so here is a fine".

In which case City would have no option but to reluctantly "tip-up" .

Having said that, I'm only guessing......and so are you, it's all speculation. Neither of us have any clue or insight into what goes on behind closed legal doors.

It appears that it is easy for clubs to fall foul of the rules, take this for instance:
"Manchester United have been fined €300,000 (£257,000) by Uefa for committing financial fair play breaches over a four-year period between 2019 and 2022."

Just think how much roofing felt that £257,000 would have bought.