Manchester City was found guilty of all financial rule breaches by an independent commission. The club says it will appeal.
An independent Premier League commission found Manchester City guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of the league’s financial rules on Tuesday, following a case spanning more than 100 alleged violations across nine seasons from 2009-10 to 2017-18. The commission also found the club guilty of the majority of charges tied to its failure to cooperate with the league’s investigation.
According to the Premier League, City arranged sham contracts and agreements with commercial partners to inflate the club’s revenues and reduce its costs by more than £900 million, allowing it to appear compliant with financial regulations. The league said that if Manchester City had accurately reported its finances during the period in question, the club would have breached both the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules and UEFA’s Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play regulations. ESPN reported the inflated figure separately at £830 million, or roughly $1.08 billion, citing the league’s 1,545-word statement. The Premier League said the case stemmed from a four-year investigation launched after Der Spiegel published documents from the Football Leaks cache, and that City had been aware of the guilty findings since the summer, before completing its most recent transfer activity.
The Premier League said the case will now move to a separate hearing to determine sanctions, adding that its goal is to conclude the full process, including any appeals, as soon as possible. Manchester City rejected the findings in a statement, saying it was “disappointed and surprised” by the commission’s opinion and maintaining that a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence” supports its position. The club said it would pursue all available appeal avenues, arguing the ruling contains material errors of law, principle and fact. City won eight trophies during the period covered by the case, including three Premier League titles, three League Cups and one FA Cup; the club has won six Premier League titles overall since its 2008 takeover by Abu Dhabi’s ruling family.
This is not City’s first brush with financial fair play allegations. UEFA banned the club from European competition for two years in 2020 over separate findings covering 2012-16, a ruling the Court of Arbitration for Sport later overturned while reducing an accompanying $34 million fine to $11.3 million after finding City had failed to cooperate with the investigation.
Sources: This report is based on information from CNN, ESPN, NBC Sports and Reuters.