Manchester City have been fined more than £2 million by the Premier League for breaching rules relating to kick-offs and restarts at half-time.
There have been 22 separate breaches over the past two seasons, eight in 2022/23 and 14 last season.
Manchester City have apologised for their misconduct and agreed to pay a £2.09m fine to the Premier League.
The club also confirmed it had reminded players and football management of their responsibilities.
The issue is unrelated to the fact that Manchester City are facing 115 charges of breaching rivals' financial regulations.
A statement from the Premier League reads: “The Premier League and Manchester City FC have reached a sanctions agreement after the club admitted it had breached Premier League Regulation L.33 relating to kick-off and restart obligations.
“The breaches relate to a number of Premier League matches during the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons.
“The rules relating to kick-offs and restarts help ensure that competition organisation is conducted to the highest possible professional standards and provide certainty to fans and participating clubs.
“It also ensures that the broadcast of 380 league matches around the world takes place on schedule.
“In accordance with Premier League rules, the sanctions agreement was ratified by a three-member independent judicial panel.”
The city imposed progressive penalties for each criminal act.
Over the past two seasons, there have been 23 late kickoffs across 22 games, resulting in a total of 39 minutes and 52 seconds of delayed restarts.
The first came in August 2022 when he was booked for delaying the start of the second half for 1 minute and 18 seconds against Crystal Palace.
Subsequent fines range from £10,000 to £200,000 for each subsequent breach. The longest delay was two minutes and 46 seconds at the start of the final game of the season against West Ham last season, when City were on a four-game winning streak.
More to come…
