Premier League finds Manchester City guilty of sham deals worth £900m

An independent commission found Manchester City guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of Premier League financial rules over a nine-season period, the Premier League confirmed on 29 September 2026. The commission also found the club guilty of the majority of charges relating to its failure to co-operate with the league's investigation. Manchester City denies the charges and has until Friday 2 October to lodge an appeal.bbc.co.uk+1

The verdict is the most significant disciplinary case in Premier League history, according to chief executive Richard Masters. The commission found that sham commercial deals artificially inflated the club's revenues and reduced its costs by more than £900 million during the affected period. The case matters because it establishes that the club systematically broke rules designed to keep competition financially fair, and because sanctions could still include a points deduction or expulsion.news.abplive.com

What the commission found

The commission found that Manchester City arranged sham contracts, which misrepresented the true agreement between the parties, with a number of its commercial partners, and relied on sham agreements with others. The club also 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 Premier League rules.mirror.co.uk

The Premier League statement set out four areas of breach. First, the sham contracts and disguised funding scheme. Second, misstated accounts and concealed finances. Third, the club was significantly in breach of both the Premier League's and UEFA's spending limits. Fourth, during the four-year investigation, the club committed multiple breaches of its duties of co-operation and utmost good faith towards the league, with three of the four alleged breaches upheld.

The mechanism worked through a disguised funding scheme. Companies holding sponsorship contracts with Manchester City 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. Further sham arrangements funded by ADUG enabled the club to record lower operating expenses than it actually incurred.

How the scheme worked

A further sham circular arrangement involved Fordham, an entity that purchased the club's players' image rights, which was also funded by ADUG. The purpose of these schemes, the commission found, was to artificially inflate the club's revenues and reduce its costs by more than £900 million, so the club could appear to comply with financial rules. Had all relevant agreements been reported accurately, the club would have been in breach of both the Premier League's and UEFA's spending limits by a very substantial amount.

The scale of the deception was detailed in the Daily Maverick's reporting. Manchester City artificially inflated its revenue by £830-million in sham commercial deals over a nine-year period. Of the £950-million City recorded from Abu Dhabi sponsors from 2009-10 to 2017-18, the sponsors themselves paid only £119-million. The rest came from ADUG, disguised as sponsorship. The word sham appears eight times in the commission's 40-page report.

The commission concluded that the club made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the Premier League investigation. The investigation itself lasted four years, beginning in December 2018, before the Premier League formally issued its complaint in February 2023. The independent hearing lasted 42 days and concluded in December 2024. The commission's findings were published on 29 September 2026, more than a year after the hearing ended.

What happens next

Manchester City responded with a statement saying the club is both disappointed and surprised by the opinion of the Premier League Commission. The club said it is innocent of the accusations and that a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions. Manchester City said it will be relentless, and where necessary proactive, in any and all appropriate regulatory and legal forums, and confirmed it will appeal.

Sanctions have not yet been determined. The independent commission has what the Premier League calls a broad discretion, with no set scale of penalties. Options run from unlimited fines and points deductions to other sporting sanctions, and even a recommendation that the club be expelled from the league. A separate hearing will be held to decide what punishment, if any, Manchester City could face.

The only precedent under the league's financial rules involves two other clubs. In November 2023 Everton were docked 10 points for a £124.5-million loss, £19.5-million over the £105-million limit, a penalty reduced to six points on appeal. Nottingham Forest lost four points in March 2024 for exceeding their threshold by £34.5-million, and their appeal failed. Manchester City's case involves sums far larger than either.

Manchester City has until Friday 2 October to officially lodge its appeal. The Premier League said it is committed to moving swiftly through the remainder of the process to provide certainty for the league, its clubs and fans. Elements of the case remain to be decided, including what sanction must follow for these breaches. The appeal deadline of 2 October is the next dated event in the case.