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This is the Premier League’s statement on the result in full, which includes comments from CEO Richard Masters, and just as a warning it is particularly long and damning.
An independent commission found Manchester City FC guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules over a period of nine seasons, and the majority of charges related to its failure to cooperate with the league’s investigation.The independent commission found that between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons:
– Manchester City arranged “sham” contracts (which misrepresented the real 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 revenue and reduce its costs– The club filed false accounts and hid the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators– Manchester City was significantly in breach of both the Premier League and UEFA spending limits– During the Premier League’s investigation, Manchester City committed several breaches of its duties of cooperation and good faith towards the league (three of the four alleged breaches were upheld)
The independent commission found that Manchester City arranged “sham” commercial deals with a number of its sponsors during the period, which were part of a hidden funding scheme whereby these companies only had to pay part of the relevant sponsorship fees. The rest was financed by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owns the club. As part of the scheme, further “sham” arrangements, funded by ADUG, were introduced to allow the club to absorb lower running costs than it actually did, as well as a “sham” circular arrangement with Fordham, an entity that bought the image rights of the club’s players, which was funded by ADUG.The purpose of these schemes was found to artificially inflate the club’s revenues, and reduce its costs, by more than £900 million during the affected period, apparently to comply with financial rules. The consequence of this, as the commission found, was that the club submitted false accounts and hid the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators. The commission concluded that “By its conduct the club clearly intended to circumvent the PL rules”.As a result, Manchester City did not accurately report its income and expenses for the purposes of the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules and UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play rules. The commission found that, had all the relevant agreements been accurately reported in the club’s accounts, a very substantial amount would have breached league and UEFA spending limits.In addition, during the four-year investigation carried out by the Premier League, the club committed multiple violations of its duties of cooperation and deepest good faith towards the league. The commission concluded that the club had “concerted efforts made to stop and frustrate the PL investigation”.
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 almost a decade.
“It also confirms the Premier League’s decision to pursue this case against Manchester City. While the process so far has been long and difficult, the league remains determined that the facts will be established independently.
“It is a key responsibility of the Premier League to ensure that the rules approved by the clubs themselves are maintained to protect the integrity of the competition. It is important that the league remains competitive and fair for all clubs and for the fans. We take this role extremely seriously.
“This disciplinary case, and this decision, are the most significant in the Premier League’s history. There are elements of the case that still need to be decided, including, importantly, what sanction must follow for these violations. Now that we have the Commission’s decision, we are committed to moving quickly through the rest of the process to provide security for the league, our clubs and fans.
