Premier League accuses Manchester City witnesses of giving false evidence

The Premier League has accused several Manchester City witnesses of being “dishonest” and providing “false” evidence during its investigation into alleged financial rule breaches by the club.

The claims were disclosed in the full report published on Tuesday, according to The Sun, which detailed the findings of the independent commission examining the case.

The Premier League said the commission found Manchester City guilty of all the charges relating to alleged breaches of the competition’s financial rules over nine seasons, from 2009/10 to 2017/18.

The club was also found guilty of three of the four charges relating to its alleged failure to co-operate with the league’s investigation.

In section 5.29 of the report, the commission said most of the witnesses who gave evidence had tried to assist it and provide truthful accounts.

“We concluded that the majority of the witnesses of fact who gave evidence before us were doing their best to give truthful evidence and assist us in determining the charges,” it said.

However, the commission said the evidence provided by several important witnesses called to testify on behalf of Manchester City could not be accepted as reliable on key points.

“Nevertheless, and as explained principally in Appendix 6, we concluded that the evidence given by a number of important factual witnesses called to give evidence on behalf of the club was false in a number of key respects,” the report stated.

It added that some of those witnesses knew their testimony was untrue when they gave it during the hearing.

“Some of those factual witnesses gave evidence at the hearing which they knew to be untrue and were therefore dishonest,” the commission concluded.

The report provides further detail on the independent commission’s findings, including its assessment of the testimony presented by witnesses representing Manchester City.