Man City Guilty of Financial Breaches Between 2009 and 2018 — Premier League

The Premier League has announced that an independent commission has found Manchester City guilty of multiple breaches of the competition’s financial rules covering a nine-season period.

The findings relate to the period between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons, with the Premier League stating that most of the upheld charges concerned Manchester City’s failure to cooperate fully with its investigation.

According to the Premier League, the independent commission found that Manchester City arranged and relied on what it described as “sham” commercial agreements with a number of its partners.

The commission found that some of the agreements misrepresented the true arrangements between the parties and were used to artificially increase the club’s reported revenues and reduce its costs.

The Premier League also said the commission found that Manchester City submitted misstated financial accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators.

The club was further found to have been in significant breach of both Premier League and UEFA spending limits during the period under review.

On its cooperation with the Premier League’s investigation, the commission found Manchester City had breached its duties of cooperation and utmost good faith on multiple occasions. Three of the four alleged breaches on this issue were upheld.

Commercial Agreements Under Scrutiny

The commission determined that Manchester City had entered into commercial arrangements with a number of sponsors that formed part of what the Premier League described as a disguised funding scheme.

Under the arrangements, the sponsors were required to pay only part of the relevant sponsorship fees, while the remainder was funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned Manchester City at the time.

The Premier League said the arrangements meant the club did not accurately report its income and expenditure for the purposes of its Profitability and Sustainability Rules, as well as UEFA’s Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play rules.

Reacting to the decision, Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters described it as a significant development in the competition’s efforts to enforce its financial regulations.

“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,” Masters said.

He said the decision also supported the Premier League’s decision to pursue the case, despite the lengthy and difficult nature of the proceedings.

“While the process to date has been both long and difficult, the League has remained determined that the facts be established independently,” he added.

Masters said enforcing the rules was essential to maintaining the integrity of the competition and ensuring that clubs compete under the same financial framework.

“It is a key responsibility of the Premier League to ensure that the Rules, approved by the clubs themselves, are upheld to protect the integrity of the competition,” he said.

He described the disciplinary case and the commission’s decision as the most significant in Premier League history.

However, the Premier League said the process is not yet complete, as the appropriate sanctions for the breaches have yet to be determined.

“There are elements of the case that remain to be decided, including, importantly, what sanction must follow for these breaches,” Masters said.

He added that the Premier League would move quickly to complete the remaining stages of the process following the commission’s decision.

Manchester City’s case has been the subject of a lengthy legal and regulatory process, with the club previously disputing the allegations brought against it.

The commission’s findings now establish the breaches covered by its decision, while the eventual sanctions remain to be determined as the disciplinary process continues.