Premier League confirms Manchester City found guilty of all financial charges
Abdullateef Fowewe
Premier League has confirmed on Tuesday that an independent Commission has ruled Manchester City guilty of all charges relating to serious breaches of the competition’s financial rules spanning a nine-season period.
According to reports from journalist Fabrizio Romano, the Commission found the club breached regulations between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons.
“Manchester City arranged ‘sham’ contracts (which misrepresented the true 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 revenues and reduce its costs,” the findings stated.
The Commission also determined that the club “filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators” and was “significantly in breach of both the Premier League’s and UEFA’s spending limits.”
In addition, the panel upheld the majority of charges concerning the club’s failure to co-operate with the League’s investigation, finding that Manchester City “committed multiple breaches of its duties of co-operation and utmost good faith towards the League.”
The club has the right to appeal the independent Commission’s findings and has until Friday 2 October to do so.
The Premier League Board said its intention is that the full process, including any appeals and the publication of relevant decisions, is concluded as soon as possible.
