Manchester City Premier League charges: What do they mean?

Manchester City have won the Premier League eight times over the last 14 years. But whether those titles will remain is one of a plethora of issues at stake after England's top division charged one of its most high profile clubs with more than 100 breaches of its financial regulations.

On Tuesday, the Premier League announced that an independent commission had found City had drawn up "sham contracts" as well as "relying on sham agreements to artificially inflate the club's revenues and reduce its costs". These contracts, dubious sponsorships and a number of other methods were, according to the commission's report , used to inflate the club's revenue to the tune of about £900 million (€1.05 billion) over the period between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons.

The case has been ongoing for eight years after initial revelations from Germany's Der Spiege l and Rui Pinto of the 'Football Leaks' website. City continue to deny any wrongdoing.

"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," read a City statement . "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."

本文の著作権はDeutsche Welleにあります。