Manchester City now faces the prospect of significant sanctions after an independent commission found the club guilty of multiple breaches of Premier League financial rules spanning nine seasons.
The Premier League said the breaches occurred between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons and included failures relating to the reporting of commercial revenues, club expenditure and compliance with financial regulations.
The commission also found that Manchester City failed to fully cooperate with the Premier League’s investigation, with three of four alleged breaches of its duty to cooperate and act in good faith upheld.
According to the league, the commission found that City used commercial arrangements that did not accurately reflect the underlying agreements with some of its sponsors. The Premier League said part of the sponsorship funding was provided by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd, the company that owned the club.
The league said the arrangements resulted in City failing to accurately report income and expenditure for the purposes of the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules and UEFA’s financial regulations.
Manchester City was also found to have been significantly in breach of spending limits imposed by both the Premier League and UEFA during the period under investigation.
However, the case is not yet complete.
The Premier League said the commission’s ruling establishes the findings of fact, while the appropriate sanctions for the breaches remain to be determined.
Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters described the case as one of the most significant disciplinary proceedings in the competition’s history.
Masters said the league had pursued the case to establish the facts independently and would now seek to move quickly through the remaining stage of the process.
The final punishment could therefore become the next major development in the long-running case, with the league yet to announce what penalties will follow from the commission’s findings.
The ruling brings a major stage of the Premier League’s investigation to a close, but leaves Manchester City facing further proceedings over the consequences of the breaches established by the independent commission.
