Manchester City Found Guilty of Financial Rule Breaches

An independent Premier League commission has found Manchester City guilty of serious financial rule breaches during the period from the 2009/10 to 2017/18 seasons. The commission determined that the club used commercial arrangements that artificially inflated its revenues and reduced costs by over £900 million.

This period coincided with City’s rise as a dominant force in English football, during which they signed high-profile players like Sergio Agüero, Yaya Touré, and Kevin De Bruyne, and won their first Premier League titles. The Premier League stated that City entered into “sham” contracts with commercial partners, where some sponsorship fees were only partially paid by sponsors, with the remainder funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd, the club's owner.

The commission found that City misrepresented its financial position, filing accounts that concealed the true state of its finances from auditors and regulators, thereby circumventing financial rules on profitability and sustainability.