Man City Found Guilty on Nearly All 115 Charges of Breaking Premier League Finance Rules
An independent commission found 'sham' sponsorship deals and misstated accounts across nine seasons. Sanctions, which could include points deductions or expulsion, come at a separate hearing.
Manchester City has been found guilty of nearly all of the 115 charges the Premier League brought against it, in the biggest financial-rules case in English soccer history.
An independent commission found City guilty of every charge tied to serious breaches of the league's financial rules over a nine-season period from 2009 to 2018. It also found the club guilty of most of the charges that it failed to cooperate with the league's investigation.
The panel found that City arranged "sham" contracts with commercial partners to inflate its earnings, filed "misstated" accounts to hide its true finances and "significantly" breached Premier League and UEFA spending limits. NBC News reports the findings also covered hidden supplemental payments to managers and players and inflated figures on Abu Dhabi-linked deals.
The numbers reported are large. NBC News says the schemes inflated revenue and cut costs by more than £900 million, about $1.19 billion. ESPN reports the commission found commercial revenue was overstated by £830 million, with the club declaring £949.94 million from Abu Dhabi sponsors when only £119.25 million was actually paid by them.
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters called the verdict "the most significant in Premier League history," ESPN reported.
City says it will fight on. The club said it was "disappointed and surprised" and maintains it is innocent. It said the opinion contains "clear material errors, of law, principle and fact," and vowed to be "relentless" in pursuing appeals. Chief executive Ferran Soriano described the case as resting on "a single false accusation" that owner funding was disguised as sponsorship. NBC reports City must appeal by Friday if it chooses to, and that an appeal could reach London's High Court.
The punishment is still undecided. A separate hearing before an independent commission will set sanctions. The possible penalties range from fines to points deductions to expulsion from the league.
The stakes reach well beyond one club. City has dominated English soccer for about 15 years under Abu Dhabi ownership, winning multiple Premier League titles and a Champions League during the period examined. The sanctions hearing will show how far the league is willing to go against its most successful modern team.
The case has run for years. The Premier League filed its charges against City in February 2023, and the verdict now closes the first stage of a process that still has a sanctions hearing and possible appeals ahead. Rival clubs and supporters will be watching closely to see whether the penalty matches the scale of the findings.
