Former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan has said that Manchester City can hope for a "slight reduction" to their two-year ban from European football.
The ban was administered after UEFA found the club to have committed "serious breaches" of Financial Fair Play regulations.
Speaking to talkSPORT, Jordan said: "I think Man City will huff and puff about that and threaten whatever they can to try and get themselves out of the position that they find themselves in.
"There may well be a trade offer. CAS [Court of Arbitration for Sport], in my experience, at least 90 per cent of the time the Court of Arbitration for Sport comes down on the side of the authority, in most cases. There might be an exception.
"But if there is an exception, I only see it in a slight reduction of a sanction. Maybe they will, if they don't have the courage to give a conviction, they might reduce it to one year, if Man City put them under an enormous amount of pressure."
The club are planning on submitting an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in an attempt to have the ban overturned.