Manchester City has been found guilty of all charges related to breaches of Premier League financial rules between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons, the Premier League confirmed on Tuesday.
An independent commission found that during that period, the club arranged "sham contracts" with commercial partners as part of a scheme to disguise secret funding of more than £830m. The commission also found City guilty of "relying on sham agreements to artificially inflate the club's revenues and reduce its costs".
What the Commission Found
The charges concerned well over 100 alleged individual breaches of Premier League rules across four broad categories. The commission found City guilty of all charges except one relating to non-cooperation with the Premier League investigation.
The report stated that "a number of important club witnesses gave false evidence in key respects and that some knowingly gave untrue and dishonest evidence".
The sham commercial deals were part of a "disguised funding scheme" valued at £830.69m. City recorded £360m in sponsor fees during the three seasons they won the Premier League — 2011-12, 2013-14, and 2017-18. Only £43m of that was legitimate; the rest came from their owners and was disguised.
The commission said the relevant sponsorship agreements "were found to be shams, or at minimum did not reflect their economic substance". It described "deliberate or reckless conduct intended to circumvent the Premier League rules" that allowed City to avoid recording what would otherwise have been the largest single-season loss in Premier League history in 2009-10.
The scale of evidence considered by the commission was substantial — the index alone ran to more than 750 pages, while the core bundle of documents ran to many tens of thousands of pages.
What Happens Next
Manchester City continues to deny any wrongdoing and has until 2 October to submit an appeal.
