Premier League confirms Man City guilty verdict: Sham contracts and falsified accounts

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Tom Weber | Writer

The Premier League has, for the first time, officially confirmed that Manchester City have been found guilty of the majority of their 115 charges.

Last week, the bombshell news dropped that a verdict on the biggest legal case in the history of English football had been given, with Man City found to have indeed committed 114 of the 115 charges levelled at them by the Premier League.

The indictments relate to various offences between 2009 and 2018. Specifically, City stand accused of having failed to provide accurate financial information and details of payments and of breaching the financial regulations of the Premier League and UEFA.

Man City have vehemently denied all allegations and sought to reassure supporters with an official statement from the club as well as an open letter from chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak last week.

Crucially, though, the reports of the guilty verdict were not denied - and for good reason. They were true, as the Premier League has now confirmed in a bombshell statement for the first time.

Man City verdict confirmed

The Premier League announced that "an independent Commission has found Manchester City FC guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period, and the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the League’s investigation."

The Premier League then provided a detailed description of the offences, ranging from so-called "sham" contracts to falsified accounts:

• "Man 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)"

It was found that by employing these various schemes, Man City "artificially inflated the club’s revenues, and reduced its costs, by more than £900 million during the affected period, to appear to comply with financial rules."

The statement added: "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.

"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.'"

Chief executive Richard Masters described City's actions as a "systematic breaking of Premier League rules for nearly a decade." He also confirmed that no sanctions have as yet been decided or meted out.

Man City are expected to appeal the verdict of the independent commission and have until 2 October to do so. The Premier League wants to resolve the matter of the sanctions and the entire legal process "as soon as possible."

Man City statement

In response to the Premier League's announcement, Man City published a statement of their own, claiming that they have been left "disappointed and surprised" by the guilty verdict.

"Manchester City FC is both disappointed and surprised by the opinion of the Premier League Commission, that has been published today," the statement began.

"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 will therefore be relentless, and where necessary proactive, in any and all appropriate regulatory and legal forums.

"The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements uncompleted. 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 diligently respected due process for eight years on the basis that the Premier League Board and Executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from partisan influence.

"The Club is obviously restricted in what it can say further until all future proceedings are complete."

Written by

Tom Weber | Writer

Tom Weber is an experienced, multilingual sports writer who specialises in European football and American soccer as part of his freelance work for FootballTransfers.

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