An independent commission has found Manchester City guilty of almost all of the 115 charges brought against the club by the Premier League in February 2023. The decision was announced on Tuesday. City have until Friday 2 October to appeal, and the punishment has yet to be determined.
According to CBS Sports, the club were found guilty on 114 of the 115 charges. The charges relate to the seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18. The commission finds that City entered into what the league calls “sham contracts” with commercial partners, agreements that did not reflect what the parties had actually agreed. The aim was to inflate revenue and reduce costs by more than £900 million, Al Jazeera reports.
According to the AP news agency, the commission also found that the club submitted misleading accounts, breached spending limits and failed to cooperate with the league’s investigation between 2018 and 2023. Goal reports that the commission believes the club made a concerted effort to halt and obstruct the investigation.
These disciplinary proceedings, and this decision, are the most significant in Premier League history.
Richard Masters, Premier League chief executive
City: We are innocent
City responded swiftly. The club say they are “both disappointed and surprised” by the commission’s findings and maintain their innocence. According to the club, the decision contains clear, material errors of law, principle and fact, and is therefore unsustainable. City vow to be “relentless” in the appeal process.
An appeal will go before a new three-person panel. Premier League rules offer no route to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but City can go to the High Court in England if the club believe the process has been unfair, according to Sky Sports. Chief executive Ferran Soriano is reported to have told a meeting of the European Club Association in Copenhagen that it will take “much more time” before the case is concluded, according to sources who spoke to Sky News.
Punishment to be decided later
Masters stressed that parts of the case remain unresolved, including what punishment should follow. That will be determined at a separate hearing. The rules allow for anything from a reprimand and fines to points deductions and, in the most extreme case, expulsion from the league. The Premier League says it will move swiftly to the next stage of the process.
Until a decision is made, the table remains unchanged. City have won all five of their opening league matches under Enzo Maresca and lead the table with 15 points, three ahead of Arsenal.
For Erling Haaland, the case concerns the years before his arrival. The Norwegian was signed from Borussia Dortmund in 2022, several seasons after the period covered by the ruling. On the pitch, he has started the season in familiar fashion: when he scored against Sunderland in the 5–3 win on 20 September, he had scored against all 25 Premier League clubs he has faced, according to the Irish Examiner.
City’s next match is away to Liverpool on Sunday 11 October at 17.30. The appeal deadline expires long before then.