An independent commission has found Manchester City in breach of the Premier League's financial rules, concluding that the club used "sham" sponsorship contracts to hide owner funding and understate costs between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons. City say they are innocent and will appeal.
There is a discrepancy in the reports on the exact verdict. The Premier League and Dutch broadcaster NOS say the club was found guilty on all 115 charges. BBC Arabic reports, however, that the commission convicted City on all charges except one, relating to non-cooperation with the league's investigation, and Al Jazeera cites 114 of 115. The published report also says the charges cover more than 100 individual alleged breaches across four main categories. The full report was released in redacted form on Tuesday, after details leaked the previous week.
According to the commission, the club entered into sham agreements with commercial partners as part of a "disguised funding scheme" worth £830.69 million. It said City recorded £360 million in sponsorship revenue across three title-winning seasons, but only £43 million was legitimate, with the rest coming from the club's owners and its true source concealed. The panel said this allowed City to avoid recording what would otherwise have been the largest single-season loss in Premier League history in 2009-10. It also found that some key club witnesses gave false evidence, and that the conduct was deliberate or reckless.
The club has been owned since 2008 by the Abu Dhabi United Group, a consortium linked to Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whose investment helped turn City into a major European force. The case began after German magazine Der Spiegel published allegations in 2018. UEFA, European football's governing body, imposed a two-year European ban in 2020, but it was overturned on appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The Premier League brought its 115 charges in February 2023, and a 10-week hearing began in September 2024.
City said it was "disappointed and surprised", insisted it had "irrefutable evidence" and would pursue appeals on the grounds of clear errors of law, principle and fact. Chief executive Ferran Soriano, in a video message to staff, criticised what he called a Premier League "conspiracy theory" and said the club would be vindicated. The deadline to appeal is 2 October.
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said the ruling showed the club had "systematically breached" the rules for nearly a decade and vindicated the decision to pursue the case. Sanctions will be decided at a separate, confidential hearing. Former City chairman David Bernstein said the league's credibility was at stake and that, if the findings are upheld, financial penalties alone would not suffice and expulsion should be considered. UK culture secretary Lisa Nandy called the report "extremely serious" and a worry for City fans and the wider league.
The outcome matters because it tests whether the league can enforce rules designed to keep competition fair among clubs, and because the penalty, and any appeal, could reshape English football's most-watched competition.