The word the independent commission kept reaching for was "sham". Not irregular. Not aggressive. Sham. The Premier League published a redacted version of its report into Manchester City on Tuesday afternoon, and the finding at the centre of it is that the club built a network of commercial agreements that did not reflect what was actually happening, in order to hide owner money worth £830.69m and pass it off as sponsorship income.
City were found guilty of every charge put to them bar one, the exception being a charge relating to non-cooperation with the investigation. They deny wrongdoing and have until 2 October to lodge an appeal.
What the commission says actually happened
Between 2009-10 and 2017-18 the club is found to have relied on what the report calls "sham agreements to artificially inflate the club's revenues and reduce its costs". The numbers attached to that finding are the part that will be quoted for years. Across the three seasons City won the title in that window — 2011-12, 2013-14 and 2017-18 — the club booked £360m in sponsor fees. Only £43m of that was legitimate. The rest came from the owners and was dressed up as something else.
The commission describes "deliberate or reckless conduct intended to circumvent the Premier League rules". It also found that the scheme allowed City to avoid recording what would otherwise have been the biggest single-season loss in Premier League history, in 2009-10. That was the season after Abu Dhabi United Group took over, the season City finished fifth and spent heavily doing it.
There is a harder line still, and it is about people rather than accounting. The report states that a number of important club witnesses gave false evidence in key respects, and that some knowingly gave untrue and dishonest evidence. That is not a technical finding about the treatment of a receivable. That is a panel saying it was lied to.
The scale of it
More than 100 individual alleged breaches were grouped into four broad charge categories. The index to the evidence alone runs past 750 pages. The core bundle, by the commission's own description, runs to many tens of thousands of pages. The hearing itself took ten weeks in the autumn of 2024, and the verdict has taken almost two years to surface, which tells you something about how much material was in front of the panel.
Richard Masters said the decision establishes the facts of what happened and details how the club systematically broke the rules for nearly a decade. He also said it vindicates the League's decision to bring the case, which reads like a man who has spent seven years being asked whether it was worth it.
City are not moving
The club's response was immediate and unbending. City said they were disappointed and surprised, that a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all their positions, and that they will be "relentless, and where necessary proactive, in any and all appropriate regulatory and legal forums". They argue the opinion contains clear material errors of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe.
Ferran Soriano declined to answer questions when approached by the BBC, then sent a video message to club staff criticising what he called a "Premier League conspiracy theory" and insisting City would be vindicated.
Not everyone connected to the club agrees. David Bernstein, City chairman from 1998 to 2003, called the findings damning beyond belief and said the credibility of the Premier League is at stake. He went further than most: financial sanctions, he argued, mean nothing to owners of this wealth, and if the verdict survives appeal the club cannot remain in the Premier League. He said that as a supporter of 70 years. Lisa Nandy, the Culture, Media and Sport secretary, called the report incredibly stark.
What happens next is still unwritten
The punishment has not been decided. The Premier League confirmed that sanction will be dealt with separately, at a further hearing with the same independent commission, and under League rules that hearing stays private and confidential. So the public got the verdict on Tuesday and will not get the sentence for some time.
Eight years of investigation, a Der Spiegel leak in 2018, a Uefa ban overturned at Cas in 2020, 115 charges in February 2023, and now this. The one thing the report does not do is tell anyone what happens to the trophies.
Case facts: Independent commission report published by the Premier League on 29 September 2026. Breaches cover the seasons 2009-10 to 2017-18. Disguised funding scheme valued at £830.69m. Of £360m in sponsor fees recorded across the 2011-12, 2013-14 and 2017-18 title seasons, £43m was found to be legitimate. Guilty on all charges except one relating to non-cooperation. Deadline to appeal: 2 October 2026. Sanction to be decided at a separate private hearing.
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