The Premier League has confirmed that Manchester City have been found guilty of all charges related to breaches of Premier League financial rules.
It has also been found guilty of the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the League’s investigation.
A redacted version of the independent Commission’s report has been published, which said the charges “concerned well over 100 alleged individual breaches of Premier League Rules across four broad charge categories”.
The following is an excerpt relating to the charges:
The independent Commission found that between Seasons 2009/10 and 2017/18:
- During the Premier League’s investigation, Manchester City committed multiple breaches of its duties of co-operation and utmost good faith towards the League (three of the four alleged breaches were upheld)
- 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
- Manchester City was significantly in breach of both the Premier League’s and UEFA’s spending limits
Read the full Premier League statement HERE.
Manchester City has since responded, saying the club was “both disappointed and surprised by the opinion of the Premier League Commission”.
“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,” it adds.
City says it 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.”
