Manchester City Face Severe Sanctions After Panel Uncovers Years Of Premier League Rule Breaches

An independent panel said Manchester City inflated its income by more than $1 billion across almost a decade and broke Premier League financial rules on a wide scale in a report released Tuesday. It found the club responsible for nearly all of the more than 115 alleged breaches, clearing the path for penalties that could range from a heavy points deduction to expulsion from the league.

The ruling lands at the centre of what is widely seen as the biggest scandal in Premier League history. Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said City “systematically broke Premier League rules for nearly a decade.”

“This disciplinary case, and this decision, are the most significant in Premier League history,” Masters said.

Sanctions will be decided at a separate hearing on a date that has not been announced. City said it was “disappointed and surprised” by the decision and plans to appeal. Any appeal by City would have to be made by Friday, the league said.

Charges And Findings

The case spans 14 years.

Of the charges, 80 covered 2009-18 and related to alleged financial wrongdoing. Another 35 covered 2018-23 and related to City’s alleged failure to cooperate with the investigation. The allegations first surfaced in 2018 after leaked club emails and documents emerged, and the Premier League opened its case more than three years ago.

The findings cut across a period in which City rose from the shadow of Manchester United, won three league titles and signed players including Yaya Toure, Sergio Aguero and Kevin de Bruyne. Over that nine-year span from 2009-18, the club was accused of giving misleading information about its finances.

The breaches included failing to provide accurate financial information, submitting inflated sponsorship numbers, hiding payments and breaching Premier League and UEFA financial rules meant to stop clubs spending beyond their means. The league said: “Manchester City arranged ‘sham’ contracts (which misrepresented the true agreement between the parties) 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 club filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators,” the league said. It also said: “The purpose of City's ‘schemes’ was to ‘artificially inflate the club’s revenues, and reduce its costs, by more than £900 million ($1.19 billion) during the affected period, to appear to comply with financial rules.’”

“An independent commission has found Manchester City guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period,” the league said, “and the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the league’s investigation.”

The panel’s findings amount to a judgment that City’s climb to the top of English football was helped, at least in part, by evading financial restrictions that applied to rival clubs.

Club Response And Fallout

City said it would be “relentless” in its effort to clear its name. In a staff video obtained by broadcaster Sky News, chief executive Ferran Soriano rejected the ruling and restated the club’s defence.

“This has gone on for so long that it is important to remind ourselves that the whole Premier League case against us is based on a single false accusation: that the owner's personal money was somehow and secretly put into the club via some sponsors from Abu Dhabi,” he said.

“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.”

The pressure is spreading across English football. Last week, it emerged that the accusations were expected to be upheld after an exhaustive process. Now rival clubs are calling for compensation for lost earnings and threatening legal action, while fans and some players from other teams are asking whether City should be stripped of titles.

Questions also hang over the future of players such as Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki, and over Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Sheikh Mansour, the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family, bought City in 2008 and later expanded the City Football Group to include clubs such as New York City FC and Melbourne City.

City has long denied wrongdoing. In 2023, when the charges were brought, the club referred to a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence” supporting its position. Even last week, chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak maintained confidence in proving the club’s innocence. If City argues the process was unfair, the appeal could end up in the High Court in London.