Premier League statement in full as Man City guilty of breaching financial rules

The Premier League has found Manchester City guilty of the majority of the 115 charges relating to breaches of their financial rules over a nine-season period. An independent commission was appointed following a four-year investigation to decide the outcome of the charges, which stretch between 2009 and 2018.

The verdict was widely reported last Friday but has now been confirmed by the Premier League, who released a lengthy statement saying that City are "guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of the Premier League's financial rules" and are also guilty of "the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the League's investigation. The independent Commission found that between Seasons 2009/10 and 2017/18: 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 club filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators Manchester City was significantly in breach of both the Premier League's and UEFA's spending limits. During the Premier League's investigation, Manchester City committed multiple breaches of its duties of co-operation and utmost good faith towards the League (three of the four alleged breaches were upheld) The independent Commission found that Manchester City arranged 'sham' commercial deals with a number of its sponsors during the period, which were part of a disguised funding scheme, whereby those companies were only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.

The remainder was funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club. As part of the scheme, further 'sham' arrangements, funded by ADUG, were entered into to enable the club to record lower operating expenses than it actually incurred, as well as a 'sham' circular arrangement with Fordham, an entity that purchased the club's players' image rights, that was funded by ADUG.

Man City have been found guilty of the majority of charges(PA) The purpose of these schemes was found to have been to artificially inflate the club's revenues, and reduce its costs, by more than £900 million during the affected period, to appear to comply with financial rules. The consequence of this, as the Commission found, was that the club filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators.

The Commission concluded that'by its conduct the club clearly intended to circumvent the PL Rules'. As a result, Manchester City failed to accurately report its income and expenditure for the purposes of the Premier League's Profitability and Sustainability Rules and UEFA's Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Rules.

The Commission found that, had all of the relevant agreements been reported accurately in the club's accounts, it would have been in breach of both the League's and UEFA's spending limits by a very substantial amount. In addition, during the course of the four-year investigation conducted by the Premier League, the club committed multiple breaches of its duties of co-operation and utmost good faith towards the League.

The Commission concluded that the club had "made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the PL investigation". Richard Masters, Chief Executive of the Premier League, said:"The core decision establishes the facts of what happened at Manchester City during this period.

It details how the club systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade. "It also vindicates the Premier League's decision to pursue this case against Manchester City."