Manchester City used “sham” commercial contracts as part of schemes to inflate revenue and understate costs by more than $1.19 billion over nearly a decade, the Premier League said on Tuesday after an independent commission ruled the club guilty of serious breaches of financial rules.
The commission found City guilty of all charges relating to breaches of the league’s financial rules over nine seasons, between the 2009 to 2010 and 2017 to 2018 campaigns, as well as three of four charges concerning their failure to co-operate with the investigation.
The club, which denies wrongdoing, said in a statement it would appeal “on the basis that the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe”.
No sanction has yet been imposed, leaving unresolved the potential consequences for a club that has dominated English football over the past decade.
A significant punishment could affect past and future title races, European qualification and the distribution of tens of millions of pounds in prize money.
The case has also raised wider questions about financial governance, competitive integrity and the Premier League’s ability to hold its most powerful clubs to account.
–Reuters–
