The English League announced in what violations caught “Manchester City”

The Premier League has announced that Manchester City have been found guilty of all charges related to violations of the league’s financial rules between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons, as well as most of the counts related to the club’s unwillingness to cooperate with the league’s ongoing investigation.

An independent panel found that Manchester City:

entered into fictitious contracts (distorting the essence of the actual agreements between the parties) with a number of commercial partners, and also relied on fictitious agreements with other counterparties to artificially inflate the club’s revenues and understate expenses; provided false financial statements and concealed the real state of affairs with its finances from auditors and football regulators; committed serious violations of the spending limits established by the Premier League and UEFA; during the investigation conducted by the Premier League, the club repeatedly violated its obligations to cooperate and cooperate in good faith with the league.

The independent panel also found that Manchester City entered into fictitious commercial deals with a number of sponsors during the said period as part of a hidden funding scheme. These companies were required to pay only part of the sponsorship fees, and the balance was covered by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club. Under this scheme, additional fictitious arrangements (also funded by ADUG) were entered into, allowing the club to account for operating expenses less than they actually were. In addition, a sham scheme was implemented with the participation of Fordham (which bought the rights to use the image of the club's players), which was also funded by ADUG.

The purpose of these schemes was to artificially inflate revenues and understate the club's spending (by a total of more than £900m over the period under review) to create an appearance of compliance with financial rules. As a consequence, the commission found, the club provided false reporting and concealed the real financial situation from auditors and football regulators. The commission concluded that “by their actions the club clearly intended to circumvent the rules of the Premier League.”.

As a result, Manchester City did not provide a credible representation of their revenues and expenses under Premier League rules, as well as UEFA club licensing and financial fair play rules. The Commission found that if all relevant agreements were correctly reflected in the club's financial statements, this would result in a significant excess of the league and UEFA spending limits.

In addition, during a four-year investigation by the Premier League, the club has repeatedly breached its obligations to cooperate and engage in good faith with the League. The commission concluded that the club had "made a deliberate effort to stop the Premier League investigation and obstruct it.".

The club has the right to appeal the findings of the commission until October 2.

Now that the charges have been confirmed, the issue of applying sanctions will be considered separately at the next meeting with the participation of an independent commission. In accordance with the rules of the league, this meeting will be held in private and will remain confidential until the results are allowed to be made public.

The Premier League in early 2023 reported that as a result of an investigation launched in 2018, it found more than a hundred violations at the club, after it was bought by City Football Group in 2008. Manchester City denied all the allegations.

In August 2024, the New York Times wrote that Manchester City could lose 70-80 points, which guarantees relegation from the Premier League.