Manchester City Responds After Four-Year Probe Finds Club Guilty

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Manchester City has broken its silence after being found guilty of breaching the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period, maintaining its innocence despite the governing body’s verdict after a four-year investigation.

The Premier League announced it found the club guilty of about 115 charges, including inaccurate financial information; inaccurate reporting of player/manager payments; breaches of UEFA Financial Fair Play rules; breaches of Premier League Profitability and Sustainability Rules; and failure to cooperate with the Premier League investigation.

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

According to the Independent Commission, the club structured contracts in a way that concealed the actual agreements between the parties and commercial partners, with the aim of inflating revenues and reducing expenses during the 2009/10 to 2017/18 seasons.

“The independent Commission found that between Seasons 2009/10 and 2017/18:

• 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 statement continued.

In response to the findings, City insisted it had done nothing wrong and vowed to challenge the ruling, claiming it is flawed and contains inaccuracies.

“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 will therefore be relentless, and where necessary proactive, in any and all appropriate regulatory and legal forums.

“The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements uncompleted. 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,” said the City statementthe City statement.

City has a deadline of Friday, 2 October, to file for an appeal. Decisions will be taken after the Appeal Board’s decision.