Premier League Confirms Man City Guilty of ‘Sham Deals’ in Verdict

The Premier League has confirmed that Manchester City was found guilty of every charge relating to serious breaches of its financial regulations, including allegations that the club misrepresented its accounts by approximately £900 million.

Our News Outlet Sport reported on Friday that City had been found guilty of a series of violations spanning a glittering nine-year period in the club’s history. The verdict sent shockwaves through football and could lead to severe sanctions, including possible expulsion from the Premier League.

Until now, there had been no official response to the findings of the independent panel that oversaw a hearing which concluded in December 2024.

That changed dramatically with the publication of a lengthy Premier League statement. The league said Manchester City had arranged “sham contracts” that misrepresented the true agreements with several commercial partners. It also said the club relied on other “sham” arrangements to artificially increase its revenues and reduce its costs.

According to the Premier League, the club’s financial position at the Etihad was falsely presented by around £900 million.

The league said the panel concluded that City had “filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators”. It added that the club was “significantly in breach” of both Premier League and UEFA spending limits between 2009 and 2018, a period in which City won eight major trophies.

Several sponsorship agreements formed part of what the Premier League described as a “disguised funding scheme”. Under the arrangement, sponsors paid only part of the stated fees, while the remainder was provided by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), the company that owned Manchester City.

The Core Decision, released on Tuesday, found that ADUG had contributed more than four times the amount paid by sponsors toward the total sponsorship revenue recorded by the club in some financial years.

In the 2013-14 season, for instance, Manchester City recorded £127.5 million in sponsorship income. However, the panel found that sponsors had provided only £16 million, with a further £111.5 million coming from ADUG through the disguised funding arrangement.

The panel also identified additional “sham” arrangements funded by ADUG that enabled City to report lower operating expenses. It further found a “sham” circular arrangement involving Fordham, an entity that bought the image rights of the club’s players and was funded by ADUG.

The Premier League said the arrangements inflated revenue and reduced reported costs by approximately £900 million as the club sought to comply with spending regulations. As a result, City “filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators”.

Had Manchester City reported its finances accurately, the Premier League said, it would have breached both the league’s and UEFA’s spending limits “by a very substantial amount”.

The panel also found multiple breaches of the club’s obligations to cooperate and act in good faith. It concluded that City failed to assist with the Premier League’s four-year investigation, which began after emails obtained by a hacker came to light.

The club had, the panel said, “made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the PL investigation”.

The Core Decision went further, describing some witnesses who gave evidence on behalf of Manchester City as “dishonest”.

“That evidence given by a number of important factual witnesses called to give evidence on behalf of the Club was false in a number of key respects,” the decision stated. It added: “Certain of those factual witnesses had given evidence at the hearing that they knew to be untrue”.

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

“It also vindicates the Premier League’s decision to pursue this case against Manchester City. While the process to date has been both long and difficult, the League has remained determined that the facts be established independently.

“It is a key responsibility of the Premier League to ensure that the Rules, approved by the clubs themselves, are upheld to protect the integrity of the competition. It is paramount that the League remains competitive and fair for all clubs and for the fans. We take that role extremely seriously.”

‘This disciplinary case, and this decision, are the most significant in Premier League history. 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.’

In a statement released a short time later, City said it was ‘disappointed and surprised’ and referred to the ‘opinion of the Premier League Commission’.

It added: ‘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 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 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.’

City have until Friday to appeal.

Man City were first charged with the 115 breaches in February 2023. While that totemic number stuck, the figure – as they subsequently corrected – was actually 130.

Of those, 54 were charges of ‘failure to provide accurate and up-to-date financial information’ while there were 14 charges of ‘failure to provide accurate financial reports for player and manager compensation’. 

Both sets related to alleged offences between 2009 and 2018 (2009-2018), an eight-year period which saw the club win four Premier League titles, the FA Cup, and three League Cup competitions. 

There were also five charges of ‘failure to comply with UEFA’s regulations, including Financial Fair Play Regulations’ and seven charges of breaching the Premier League’s profit and sustainability regulations (PSR) between 2015 and 2018. 

There were also 35 counts of failure to co-operate with Premier League investigations between 2018 and 2023. 

The hearing into the 130 breaches began last September at London’s International Dispute Resolution Centre, with the Premier League sparing no expense and enlisting KCs Adam Lewis and Andrew Hunter to take its case.

Since last week’s news broke, former players from Man City’s rivals have suggested that they might be awarded honours won by the club during the period under scrutiny. 

With the sanction Man City will receive still pending, Rio Ferdinand called for the club to be stripped of its titles – including their first Premier League victory in 2011-12 which denied his side, crosstown rivals Man United, the league’s top spot on the final day of the season. 

‘Next time (former Man City player) Joleon (Lescott)’s on, he better bring my b****y medal,’ Ferdinand said on Rio Ferdinand Presents. ‘If you’re found guilty, then I think you should have to give the medals back. 

‘When I see Joleon, I’m actually going to go to his house and just say, “Listen, hand it over. Hand it over”. You can’t really sit there and say that you were champions, can you? Or you won that or you won that.

‘Well, they’re not going to have to pay any fines. They’re not going to get relegated. Just hand over the trophy. Hand over the medals, hand over the trophy. Simple as.’

His then-team-mate Wayne Rooney has taken a different view, stating on Tuesday morning that he would refuse the second-hand title, but instead look to see the club relegated for their breaches.  

‘When I see team-mates saying “I want a medal”, I’m happy with the five I’ve won,’ Rooney said on his Stick To United podcast. ‘I wouldn’t want this one. 

‘Should (the players) get it stripped for what the owners have done? Yeah maybe, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable accepting it.’ 

Instead, he added: ‘I’d put them in the lowest league they can go in and then put restrictions on them in terms of how much money they can spend for the next three or four seasons.’ 

READ MORE: The ugly stories around Man City’s ‘warfare’ over the 115 charges: The army of lawyers, the brick through the window, the tracker on a car, tension, paranoia and journalists targeted for reporting the truth, as revealed by IAN HERBERT