It’s a years-long controversy that has gripped English soccer and beyond: Did Manchester City's ownership engage in large-scale rule-breaking in an effort to transform the team into a global superpower and serial title winner?
The answer, the Premier League says, is yes.
In a stunning verdict announced Tuesday, the Premier League published a statement confirming City was guilty of almost all of the 115 charges leveled against the Abu Dhabi-controlled
club for alleged breaches of financial rules in the world's most popular league for much of the last two decades.
“This disciplinary case, and this decision, are the most significant in Premier League history," said Richard Masters, the league's chief executive.
There are likely to be seismic ramifications when sanctions are eventually handed out to City, with a whole range of punishments on the table — including expulsion from the Premier League.
And what will happen to City's squad of superstars that includes Norway striker Erling Haaland and Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez, signed this month for $169 million?
Here’s a closer look at the case that everyone in soccer is talking about:
In February 2023, the Premier League went to battle against its own champion team in unprecedented fashion, releasing a long statement detailing a list of 80 alleged breaches of its financial rules by City from 2009-18, the first nine seasons under Abu Dhabi ownership as the club tried to escape the shadow of great rival Manchester United.
The violations included failing to provide accurate financial information and submitting inflated figures for sponsorship deals out of Abu Dhabi; hiding payments that supplemented salaries of managers and players; and breaching financial rules established by the Premier League and UEFA, European soccer's governing body, aiming to keep clubs financially stable by not spending beyond their means.
The league also accused City of 35 more breaches relating to its alleged failure to cooperate with the investigation from December 2018.
The charges stemmed from purported internal emails from City published by German outlet Der Spiegel which, it claimed, detailed schemes by the club to allegedly cover up true sources of income in a bid to comply with financial fair play regulations. The information published by Der Spiegel was unearthed by the “Football Leaks” website, whose founder is Rui Pinto — a Portuguese computer hacker.
The announcement the soccer world was waiting for came Tuesday — and it was explosive.
City was guilty of all the financial breaches in the 2009-18 period and the majority of the charges of non-cooperation, the league said.
Standing out in the findings was the revelation that City arranged what the league described as “sham” contracts with commercial partners as part of a scheme to disguise secret funding of more than 830 million pounds ($1.1 billion) by the Abu Dhabi ownership.
The commission also said that some witnesses called by City to the hearing gave evidence “they knew to be untrue and so had been dishonest.”
“By its conduct the club clearly intended to circumvent” Premier League rules, the commission added.
The club did not dispute the authenticity of any initial published emails but said they were “out-of-context materials purportedly hacked or stolen from City Football Group" and that it was an “organized and clear” attempt to damage City's reputation.
When the Premier League announced its charges in 2023, City said it was “surprised” by the allegations and that it welcomed an investigation by an independent commission “to impartially consider the comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position.”
City chief executive Ferran Soriano again referenced that “irrefutable evidence” in an internal video to club staff — obtained by broadcaster Sky News — that detailed why he felt the verdict was wrong.
Soriano said the Premier League's case against City was “based on a single false accusation: that the owner’s personal money was somehow and secretly put into the club via some sponsors from Abu Dhabi. This is just not true.”
In a separate statement issued by the club, City called the commission's findings an “opinion” that “contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe.”
City would be appealing against the verdict and will be “relentless” in attempting to clear its name," the statement said.
The Premier League said sanctions will be decided in a separate, confidential hearing held by the same independent commission at an unspecified date. It also depends on the completion of the appeal that City needs to lodge by Friday.
According to Rule W64 of the Premier League handbook, there is a range of sanctions available to the commission, from a fine, to a points deduction to expulsion from the league.
For context, Everton was given a record 10-point deduction in 2023 — later reduced to six — for overspending in one financial period (three years up to the end of the 2021-22 season). City's charges are much, much wider — and unlike Everton, include a refusal to cooperate.
An appeal by City will lead to a three-person Appeal Panel being set up. Sky Sports has reported that City could go to the High Court in London if it feels the process in the case was unfair and/or impartial.
UEFA previously accused City of overstating sponsorship revenue to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations, based on the same documents published by Der Spiegel. In 2020, UEFA ruled the club had committed “serious breaches” of those regulations from 2012-16 in handing out a two-year ban from its competitions.
That ban was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which said some of UEFA's allegations were not proven and others were “time-barred.” CAS, instead, imposed a 10 million euro ($11.3 million) fine on City for failing to cooperate with independent investigators.
There are already reports that rival clubs have been preparing compensation claims on the basis that they have been impacted by City's rule-breaking.
A precedent was set just this year, with Everton ordered to pay more than 35 million pounds ($47 million) in compensation to Burnley, which successfully argued to a disciplinary commission that it would have survived relegation at Everton's expense in the 2021-22 campaign had its rival been given its six-point penalty for the financial breaches that season.
It's unclear if City could be stripped of its Premier League titles, though a line in the competition's handbook — that the commission can “make such other order as it thinks fit” — leaves such an option on the table, in theory. Relegation from the Premier League would surely lead to the breakup of its squad of superstars.
Away from the field, a finding of systematic rule-breaking is a major blow to the reputation of Abu Dhabi, whose purchase of a top soccer club in England has been described by some commentators as a soft-power strategy at a time when other Gulf states have invested heavily in the sport.
The ownership might be losing a loyal friend, too.
“I said to them, if you lie to me, the day after I'm not here,” then-City manager Pep Guardiola — the coaching mastermind behind most of City's title wins — said in 2023. “I will be out and you will not be my friend anymore.”
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