Source: @BBC
Manchester City have been found guilty of 114 of the 115 financial-rule charges brought by the Premier League, according to reports based on the independent commission’s decision. The Premier League has declined to comment, while the full ruling remains confidential.
That means the case has reached a major legal stage, but the final sporting consequences are still unknown. Manchester City are expected to appeal, and the club has maintained its position that it will contest the findings.
Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak addressed supporters on Saturday, saying the club’s position had remained consistent throughout the proceedings. He also pointed to the restrictions imposed by the confidential legal process, limiting what Manchester City can currently disclose about the evidence behind its defence.
The reported verdict covers a broad collection of allegations rather than one financial breach repeated across multiple seasons.
The charges go well beyond sponsorship revenue
The Premier League’s original case contained 115 charges covering conduct from 2009-10 onwards, with the financial allegations concentrated in the period through 2017-18. The breakdown included 54 alleged failures to provide accurate financial information and 14 allegations concerning the reporting of payments to players and managers. Five charges concerned UEFA regulations, including Financial Fair Play, while seven related to the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules. A further 35 charges concerned alleged failures to cooperate with the Premier League’s investigation.
The case has often been reduced to the allegation that Manchester City inflated sponsorship income. The commission’s reported findings cover a much wider regulatory dispute.
The cooperation charges also sit in a different category from the financial allegations. They concern Manchester City’s conduct during the Premier League’s investigation, which began after the league referred the club to an independent commission in February 2023.
The case itself had already taken years to reach this point. The Premier League investigation began well before the 2023 referral, while the commission’s hearing concluded in 2024, according to BBC reporting. The verdict was therefore delivered after an unusually long period of legal proceedings.
Manchester City’s previous experience with UEFA also forms part of the wider history. UEFA fined the club in 2014 for Financial Fair Play breaches. In 2020, UEFA imposed a two-year Champions League exclusion after finding that City had overstated sponsorship revenue. The Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned the ban and reduced the financial penalty after finding that some of the alleged conduct had not been established or was time-barred.
The Premier League case operates under a different regulatory framework, which is why that earlier CAS decision does not settle the current dispute.
The appeal will determine what happens next
Manchester City have 14 days to appeal the commission’s decision under the Premier League’s rules. An appeal would be heard by a separate three-person commission, with its decision understood to be final under the league’s process.
Until that process is completed, speculation over sanctions remains just that. Possible penalties reported in connection with the case include fines, points deductions and relegation, but no punishment has been announced.
The scale of the reported findings creates a serious test for the Premier League’s regulatory system. The league has spent years pursuing allegations involving financial reporting, player and manager payments, UEFA rules, PSR and cooperation with investigators. The commission has now ruled on those allegations, but Manchester City’s appeal could still alter the findings.
The next decisive document will therefore be the full commission judgement. It should establish which evidence was accepted, how each charge was assessed and the reasoning behind the findings. Until that is available and the appeal is resolved, the 114 figure provides the scale of the verdict, but not its final sporting consequences
