Man City Found Guilty of Every Serious Financial Charge

Manchester City have officially been found guilty of every charge concerning serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules.

The independent commission concluded that City used “sham” commercial contracts to artificially inflate revenue and reduce costs across nine seasons between 2009-10 and 2017-18.

According to the Premier League’s published findings, the club filed misstated accounts, concealed the true condition of its finances from auditors and regulators and significantly exceeded Premier League and UEFA spending limits.

The arrangements were found to have distorted City’s financial position by more than £900 million.

City were also found guilty of three of the four charges relating to their failure to cooperate with the Premier League’s investigation.

The club’s only success was therefore avoiding defeat on one cooperation charge.

For years, the entire case was commonly reduced to a number. The official decision has now supplied several more descriptive words, including “sham,” “misstated” and “concealed.”

The commission’s hearing lasted 42 days and concluded in December 2024. Its members then considered approximately 7,000 pages of witness and expert transcripts before producing what the Premier League described as the most significant disciplinary decision in its history.

City continue to deny wrongdoing and have announced their intention to appeal, arguing that the decision contains serious legal and factual errors.

No punishment has yet been imposed. A separate private hearing will determine what sanctions should follow, with fines, points deductions and other sporting penalties available to the commission.

English football has consequently received its long-awaited answer on whether Manchester City broke the rules.

It must now begin another long wait to discover what happens when a club is found guilty of breaking all of them.