Manchester City breached Premier League financial rules over nine seasons, commission finds

Manchester City used “sham” commercial agreements to inflate revenue and reduce costs by more than £900m, the Premier League says after an independent commission found the club guilty of serious financial breaches.

The commission ruled that City broke all the league’s financial rules cited in the case between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons. It also found the club guilty of three of four charges relating to a failure to co-operate with the investigation.

City deny the allegations and have until Friday to lodge an appeal. No punishment has yet been announced.

The possible sanctions could affect previous and future title races, European qualification and the distribution of tens of millions of pounds in prize money. The case has also intensified concerns about financial regulation, competitive integrity and whether the Premier League can hold its most powerful clubs to account.

According to the league, City used “sham” contracts that did not reflect the true terms of agreements with a number of commercial partners. Similar arrangements with other sponsors allegedly allowed the club to overstate income and artificially reduce expenditure.

The commission found that some sponsors paid only part of the fees stated in their contracts, with the remainder funded by the club’s owner, Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG).

It also identified ADUG-funded arrangements which enabled City to record lower operating costs. The league said those practices created the impression the club was complying with financial regulations.

Had the agreements been reported accurately, the commission concluded City would have exceeded both Premier League and Uefa spending limits “by a very substantial amount”.

The hearing lasted 42 days, and the report found that several of City’s witnesses gave false evidence. Some were said to have knowingly misled the commission.

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

Masters called the case and its decision “the most significant in Premier League history”, although the eventual sanction remains outstanding.

“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,” he said.

City said it was “disappointed and surprised” by the commission’s opinion.

“The club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions, relating to this case,” the club said.

“Manchester City FC will now pursue the appeal avenues open to it, on the basis that the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe.”

City chief executive Ferran Soriano told staff in a video that the commission had accepted the league’s “conspiracy theory”. He said the case relied on a “single false accusation” that the owner’s personal money had secretly entered the club through Abu Dhabi sponsors.

“This is just not true. Irrefutable evidence has been provided to the Premier League commission that shows it could not happen and that it did not happen,” Soriano said.

The announcement came towards the end of the European Football Clubs general assembly in Copenhagen. Representatives of Arsenal and Nottingham Forest declined to comment, while a Manchester United representative also declined to respond to Reuters.

EFC chair Nasser Al-Khelaifi reserved judgment but praised Soriano’s work on the organisation’s board.

British sports minister Lisa Nandy described the report as “incredibly stark” and called for a swift and fair conclusion.

Yasin Patel, a sports law barrister at London’s Church Court Chambers, said he expected City to fight “with all their legal might”.

“Round one was to the Premier League, let round two begin,” he added.