Man City found guilty of all charges of financial rule breaches, Premier League confirms

MANCHESTER: Manchester City have been found guilty of all charges relating to serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules over nine seasons, as well as three of four charges concerning their failure to co-operate with the investigation, the league said on Tuesday (Sep 29).

City were charged in February 2023 following a four-year investigation into alleged breaches between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons.

The club, which denies wrongdoing, said in a statement it would appeal "on the basis that the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe".

An independent commission found that City arranged “sham” contracts that misrepresented the true agreements with several commercial partners and relied on similar agreements with others to inflate their revenue and reduce costs artificially, the league said.

It found that several sponsors were required to pay only part of the fees recorded in the relevant agreements, with the balance supplied by the club's owners Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG).

The commission also identified arrangements funded by ADUG that allowed City to record lower operating expenses.

The schemes inflated City’s revenue and reduced their costs by more than 900 million pounds (US$1.2 billion), creating the appearance that the club complied with financial regulations, the league said.

The commission concluded that City would have breached both the Premier League’s and UEFA's spending limits “by a very substantial amount” had the agreements been reported accurately.

“The core decision ... details how the club systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade," said Richard Masters, the chief executive of the Premier