Five key findings as Premier League releases damning Man City verdict

Manchester City have been found guilty of all of the charges related to breaches of its financial rules, the Premier League has confirmed. A 40-page redacted summary of the independent commission’s verdict revealed the extent of City’s alleged financial rule-breaking, with the club found to have created “sham” sponsorships as part of a “disguised funding scheme” that boosted revenues by £900m over a nine-year period. Without those revenues, the statement revealed, they would have significantly breached both Premier League and Uefa financial fair play rules. A Premier League statement revealed “the club filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators”. The club said in a very strong response they were “disappointed” with the verdict and indicated that they would be “relentless” and pursue “all appropriate regulatory and legal forums”. That was followed up by a video message from chief executive Ferran Soriano to club staff proclaiming their innocence. Manchester City have known about the verdict since July, which is sure to raise eyebrows in the Premier League given the extent of their spending during the summer. What were the key findings? In short they couldn’t have been much more damning of City, finding them guilty of fraudulent activity on an industrial scale in a period where they established their dominance in English football. The independent commission found that City inflated their revenues by £830m through a series of “sham” commercial arrangements that misrepresented the true agreements between parties. The commission found the club had filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of their finances from their auditors and football regulators. Without those arrangements the Premier League statement says that they would have “significantly” breached both the league and Uefa’s financial fair play limits. The scale of the misrepresentation is huge. A statement reveals “well over 100 alleged individual breaches of Premier League Rules across four broad charge categories”. The independent commission also found that the club made “concerted efforts to frustrate the Premier League investigation” over a four-year period. How did Man City respond? In a statement, City said: “Manchester City FC is both disappointed and surprised by the opinion of the Premier League Commission, that has been published today. “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.” What happens next? The next stage is a sanctions hearing before the independent commission. Premier League chairman Richard Masters said: “The core decision establishes the facts of what happened at Manchester City during this period. It details how the club systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade. “It also vindicates the Premier League’s decision to pursue this case against Manchester City. While the process to date has been both long and difficult, the League has remained determined that the facts be established independently. “It is a key responsibility of the Premier League to ensure that the Rules, approved by the clubs themselves, are upheld to protect the integrity of the competition. It is paramount that the League remains competitive and fair for all clubs and for the fans. We take that role extremely seriously.”