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Sport

Premier League confirms Manchester City guilty of all financial rule breaches

The Premier League has officially confirmed an independent commission found Manchester City guilty of all charges over serious financial breaches between 2009 and 2018.

By Tom Ellery · · 2 min read

Aerial view of Manchester City's Etihad Stadium in Manchester.
Photo: Arne Müseler, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0 de)

The Premier League has officially confirmed that an independent commission found Manchester City guilty of all charges relating to serious breaches of its financial rules over nine seasons, from 2009-10 to 2017-18.

The announcement, made in a lengthy statement on Tuesday, goes further than Friday’s initial reports: every charge has been upheld. The commission found City arranged “sham” contracts with commercial partners that misrepresented the true agreements, inflating revenue and reducing costs by more than £900 million — with sponsors paying only part of the recorded fees and the balance supplied by the club’s owners, Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG).

City were also found guilty of three of four charges of failing to cooperate with the investigation.

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters 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.” He called it “the most significant” disciplinary case in Premier League history, adding that the sanction must still be decided separately.

City said they were “disappointed and surprised” by the commission’s opinion and would be “relentless” in their bid to prove innocence. The club will appeal on the basis the opinion “contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe”. City have until Friday, October 2, to lodge the appeal.

Sources

More on this topic: all Sport stories

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