By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Photo Credit: Premier League.
Manchester City have been found guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of Premier League financial rules by an independent Commission.
The league announced on Tuesday, 29 September 2026, that City had been found guilty on all charges related to serious breaches of its financial rules between seasons 2009-10 and 2017-18.
City faces severe sanctions that could include a huge points deduction or even expulsion from the world’s most popular soccer league.
An independent commission found that City arranged “sham” contracts that misrepresented the true agreements with several commercial partners and relied on similar agreements with others to inflate their revenue and reduce costs artificially, the league said.
It found that several sponsors were required to pay only part of the fees recorded in the relevant agreements, with the balance supplied by the club’s owners Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG).
The commission also identified arrangements funded by ADUG that allowed City to record lower operating expenses.
The schemes inflated City’s revenue and reduced their costs by more than 900 million pounds ($1.2 billion), creating the appearance that the club complied with financial regulations, the league said.
The report also found that a number of the club’s witnesses presented false evidence at the hearing, which ran for 42 days, and some knowingly misled the commission.
The commission concluded that City would have breached both the Premier League’s and UEFA’s spending limits “by a very substantial amount” had the agreements been reported accurately.
“The core decision… details how the club systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade,” said Richard Masters, the chief executive of the Premier League.
Masters described the case and decision as “the most significant in Premier League history”” but said key elements remained unresolved, most notably the sanction to be imposed.
“Now we have the Commission’s decision, we are committed to moving swiftly through the remainder of the process, to provide certainty for the League, our clubs and fans,” he said.
City said they were disappointed and surprised by the commission’s opinion.
“The Club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions, relating to this case,” the club said.
“Manchester City FC will now pursue the appeal avenues open to it, on the basis that the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe.”
The club has until October 2 to lodge an appeal.
The verdict is likely to bring chaos to English soccer in general, triggering a slew of lawsuits from rival clubs calling for compensation for having been impacted by City’s actions.