Man City guilty of all serious financial breach charges: Premier League
7 hours ago
Manchester City have been found guilty of all charges of serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons, the league has said in a statement.
City were charged in February 2023 with breaches of the league’s financial rules spanning the nine seasons following a four-year investigation.
The club said in a statement it would appeal.
An independent commission found that City “arranged ‘sham’ contracts” with a number of its commercial partners that misrepresented the true agreement between the parties, the league said on Tuesday.
The league added that the commission had found City used schemes “to artificially inflate the club’s revenues, and reduce its costs, by more than 900 million pounds ($1.2bn) during the affected period, to appear to comply with financial rules”.
“The core decision … details how the club systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade,” said Richard Masters, chief executive of the Premier League.
“There are elements of the case that remain to be decided, including, importantly, what sanction must follow for these breaches,” he said.
City, who deny any wrongdoing, said they were “disappointed and surprised” by the commission’s opinion.
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