Manchester City have been found guilty of serious financial breaches after a Premier League commission ruled the club misrepresented its accounts by £900m between 2009 and 2018.
The commission found City used “sham” sponsorship and other commercial agreements to inflate revenue, reduce costs and disguise funding from their Abu Dhabi owners. During the period under investigation, City won eight major trophies and became a dominant force in English football.
The Premier League said some sponsors paid only part of the agreed fees, with the remainder funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club. Further arrangements, including a “sham” agreement involving Fordham and players’ image rights, enabled City to record lower operating expenses.
The commission concluded that City filed misstated accounts and concealed the true position of their finances from auditors and football regulators. It found the club reported commercial income of £949.94m from 2009 to 2018, when only £119.25m had actually come from sponsors.
Had the figures been reported accurately, City would have been “significantly in breach” of both Premier League and UEFA spending limits, the league said.
The 40-page verdict also found multiple failures to co-operate with a four-year investigation, which began after club emails obtained by a hacker emerged. City had made “concerted efforts to stop and frustrate” the inquiry, according to the commission.
It criticised “a number of important factual witnesses” who gave evidence for City, describing some testimony as false and saying certain witnesses had been dishonest because they knew their evidence was untrue. The hearing lasted 42 days and concluded in December 2024, with transcripts running to more than 7,000 pages.
The Premier League can now seek penalties including expulsion, a transfer ban or a points deduction. A separate sanction hearing will take place, although it is unclear whether punishment will be imposed before City’s appeal is heard.
City confirmed it would appeal before Friday’s deadline and described the commission’s decision as an “opinion”. Chief executive Ferran Soriano said the allegations were “just not true” and that the club had supplied “irrefutable evidence”.
“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,” Soriano said. “This is just not true.”
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said the competition had been “vindicated” and that City had “systematically broken Premier League rules for nearly a decade”.
He added that the case was the most significant disciplinary matter in Premier League history, but said sanctions still had to be decided.
Under league rules, a three-person appeal board must be appointed as soon as reasonably practicable. The appeal process is intended to conclude within 12 weeks, although whether that timetable will be met remains uncertain.
