Manchester City found guilty of all charges in Premier League financial breach case
Independent commission rules club broke spending rules for almost a decade
Manchester City have been found guilty of all charges relating to serious breaches of the Premier League's financial rules over a nine-season period.
An independent commission also upheld the majority of charges relating to the club's failure to co-operate with the League's investigation.
The Premier League said the commission found that, between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons, Manchester City arranged 'sham' contracts with a number of its commercial partners, as well as relying on 'sham' agreements with others, to artificially inflate the club's revenues and reduce its costs.
The commission found the club filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators, according to the Premier League.
It also ruled that Manchester City was significantly in breach of both the Premier League's and UEFA's spending limits.
How the scheme worked
According to the Premier League's statement, the commission found that a number of the club's sponsors were only required to pay a portion of their agreed sponsorship fees, with the remainder funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owns the club.
Further 'sham' arrangements, also funded by ADUG, were said to have been used to record lower operating expenses than the club actually incurred.
The Premier League said this included a 'sham' circular arrangement with an entity called Fordham, which purchased the club's players' image rights and was itself funded by ADUG.
The purpose of the schemes, the commission found, was to inflate the club's revenues and reduce its costs by more than £900 million during the period in question, in order to appear to comply with financial rules.
The commission concluded that "by its conduct the club clearly intended to circumvent the PL Rules."
The Premier League said that, had the relevant agreements been reported accurately, the club would have breached both the League's and UEFA's spending limits "by a very substantial amount."
Premier League reaction
The Premier League said that during its four-year investigation, the club committed multiple breaches of its duties of co-operation and utmost good faith towards the League, with three of four alleged breaches of this kind upheld.
The commission concluded that the club had "made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the PL investigation."
Richard Masters, Chief Executive of the Premier League, said: "The core decision establishes the facts of what happened at Manchester City during this period. It details how the club systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade."
He added: "It also vindicates the Premier League's decision to pursue this case against Manchester City. While the process to date has been both long and difficult, the League has remained determined that the facts be established independently."
Masters said the case was "the most significant in Premier League history," adding that sanctions still need to be decided.
"There are elements of the case that remain to be decided, including, importantly, what sanction must follow for these breaches," he said. "Now we have the Commission's decision, we are committed to moving swiftly through the remainder of the process, to provide certainty for the League, our clubs and fans."
What happens next
The Premier League said the issue of sanction will now be addressed separately at a further hearing with the independent commission, which will remain private and confidential until publication of the outcome is permitted.
Manchester City has the right to appeal the commission's findings and has until Friday 2nd October to do so.
The Premier League said its board's intention is for the full process, including any appeals, to conclude as soon as possible.
The League said it began investigating Manchester City in December 2018, with a formal complaint issued under Section W of its rules in February 2023. The independent commission's hearing ran for 42 days and concluded in December 2024.
A redacted version of the commission's core decision has been published by the Premier League, which said it remains committed to publishing further appendices once it is able to do so.