‘Sham’—Premier League Stun Man City With Scathing Official Guilty Verdict

Manchester City immediately responded to the damning release which put a figure on how much money has been tied up in this scandal.

Manchester City have been officially found guilty by the Premier League. | Visionhaus/Getty Images

“Sham.” That was the word the Premier League’s official statement repeated five times during its damning declaration of Manchester City’s guilt on Tuesday.

Four days after the news broke across English media, the Premier League belatedly confirmed that an independent commission has found City guilty of all charges relating to the most serious breaches of the competition’s financial regulations between the 2009–10 and 2017–18 seasons.

The Premier League’s investigation began in December 2018 and charges were first made in February 2023 but it has taken more than three years for a verdict to be reached. Now that the cloak of uncertainty has finally been lifted, the Premier League did not mince its words.

According to the league’s sharp-tongued statement, City—between 2009 and 2018—have specifically been accused of:

• Arranging “‘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.”
• Filing “misstated accounts” which “concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators.”
• “Significantly” breaching the spending limits set out by the Premier League and UEFA, which run all European club competitions, namely, the Champions League.
• And committing “multiple breaches of its duties of co-operation and utmost good faith towards the League (three of the four alleged breaches were upheld).”

In total, the Premier League have accused City of “artificially inflating the club’s revenues, and reducing its costs, by more than £900 million [$1.2 billion] during the affected period, to appear to comply with financial rules.”

“The core decision establishes the facts of what happened at Manchester City during this period,” Premier League chief executive Richard Masters is quoted as saying. “It details how the club systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade.”

“This disciplinary case, and this decision, are the most significant in Premier League history,” Masters added. “There are elements of the case that remain to be decided, including, importantly, what sanction must follow for these breaches. Now we have the commission’s decision, we are committed to moving swiftly through the remainder of the process, to provide certainty for the League, our clubs and fans.”

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MORE FALLOUT ON MAN CITY CHARGES VERDICT

• Man City Charges: The Premier League’s Multi-Year Investigation Explained

• The Potential Punishments Facing Man City for 115 Premier League Charges

• Every Premier League Points Deduction in History—and the Clubs Hit by Them

• The Premier League Champions If Man City Are Stripped of Titles

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Man City Respond With Strong Implication

Manchester City have swiftly responded. | Molly Darlington/Getty Images

“Manchester City FC is both disappointed and surprised by the opinion of the Premier League Commission, that has been published today,” a statement from the club read.

“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.”

The Premier League’s statement revealed that City have until Friday, Oct. 2 to lodge an appeal.

City’s brief statement signed off with a stance which said a lot by what it left out. “The club has diligently respected due process for eight years on the basis that the Premier League Board and Executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from partisan influence. The club is obviously restricted in what it can say further until all future proceedings are complete.”

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