Man City Premier League Board Decision: Who Sets the Punishment and What Happens Next

Manchester City's long-running financial case has reached its most delicate stage. What remains is the punishment, and the Premier League board decision on what sanction to recommend is now central to everything that follows.

What the commission found On 29 September 2026, the Premier League announced that an independent commission had found City guilty of all charges linked to serious breaches of its financial rules over a nine-season period. It also upheld the majority of the charges for failing to cooperate with the league's investigation.

The tally was 114 of the 115 charges. That meant all 80 financial charges and 34 of the 35 charges of non-cooperation.

The heart of the ruling is the finding on sponsorship. The commission concluded that between 2009/10 and 2017/18, City arranged "sham" contracts with commercial partners as part of a disguised funding scheme, artificially inflating revenue by £830m.

The league's own statement and some reports put the figure at roughly £900m. The gap appears to come down to how the different amounts are counted, so it is worth quoting the commission's £830m figure when you want to be safe.

The wait for the verdict was long. A three-person commission heard the case over about ten weeks, from September to December 2024.

The commission itself called the delay in reaching a decision "regrettable". Where the Premier League board comes in This is the part many fans have been searching for.

The commission that found City guilty will be the one to hand down the sanction. But it does not start from a blank page.

The Premier League's board, made up of five people, is responsible for recommending a sanction to that panel. City will then get the chance to respond with mitigating evidence before the commission decides.