<\/p>\n
Manchester City face severe sanctions after being found guilty of serious breaches of the Premier League\u2019s financial rules over a nine-season period.<\/p>\n
Abu Dhabi-backed City were found to have arranged \u201csham\u201d contracts with a number of commercial partners to artificially inflate the club\u2019s revenues and reduce costs by more than \u00a3900 million (A$1.7 billion) between 2009 and 2018.<\/p>\n
\ufeffGet all the latest football news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n In doing so they concealed the true state of their finances and avoided breaches of Premier League and UEFA spending limits as a result.<\/p>\n An independent commission also found the club guilty on the majority of charges in relation to their failure to co-operate with the league\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n No sanction has yet been imposed and City said they will appeal against the decision.<\/p>\n But the ruling will send shockwaves through English football, with City\u2019s place in the Premier League now at risk and questions over whether titles could be stripped.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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,\u201d Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cThis disciplinary case, and this decision, are the most significant in Premier League history.<\/p>\n \u201cNow we have the commission\u2019s decision, we are committed to moving swiftly through the remainder of the process, to provide certainty for the league, our clubs and fans.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: Man City found guilty of 114 charges in PL bombshell as unthinkable penalty looms<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n The commission found City arranged commercial deals whereby companies were only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.<\/p>\n The remainder was funded by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan\u2019s Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development (ADUG), which owned the club.<\/p>\n Further arrangements, funded by ADUG, enabled the club to record lower operating expenses than they actually incurred.<\/p>\n As a result, City failed to accurately report income and expenditure for the purposes of the Premier League and UEFA\u2019s financial sustainability rules.<\/p>\n The scheme was found to have inflated revenue by more than \u00a3830 million, using a system they called \u2018Project Longbow\u2019, according to the independent commission, while income from image rights was overstated by almost \u00a374 million, with liabilities for staff contracts understated by nearly \u00a317 million.<\/p>\n The commission found they would have breached spending limits \u201cby a very substantial amount\u201d if City had reported accurately.<\/p>\n In a damning 40-page document, the Premier League said it regarded City\u2019s conduct as having \u201cextremely serious, significant, sustained and intentional or reckless breaches of rules critical to the proper and fair operation of the Premier League\u201d.<\/p>\n The document has detailed the scale of what the commission repeatedly called \u201csham\u201d commercial deals the club made with a number of its sponsors.<\/p>\n They were part of a disguised funding scheme, whereby those companies were only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.<\/p>\n According to the commission, one company, \u201cFordham\u201d, was \u201cin reality little more than a front\u201d for the Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club, to plough in more funds.<\/p>\n The commission said: \u201cIn 2012 the club launched what it termed Project Longbow. \u201cWe accept the club\u2019s explanation that Project Longbow was a multi-strand project whose purpose was to explore how the club might boost its revenues and reduce its operating losses.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of the strands of Project Longbow were genuine, legitimate attempts to achieve those aims. One was not. That was the Fordham Arrangement.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: Nuclear option City faces; damning precedent laid bare \u2014 What next in PL\u2019s \u2018financial doping\u2019 saga<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n – City set to appeal –<\/b><\/p>\n In addition, City were found to have \u201cmade concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the Premier League\u201d during a four-year investigation.<\/p>\n The commission found that evidence given by several important factual witnesses on behalf of City was \u201cfalse in a number of key respects\u201d.<\/p>\n It added that \u201ccertain of those factual witnesses had given evidence at the hearing that they knew to be untrue and so had been dishonest\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly serious, the Premier League report is incredibly stark,\u201d said the British government\u2019s culture, media and sport secretary Lisa Nandy.<\/p>\n \u201cManchester City have the right to appeal. This is causing a lot of concern for City fans and all fans of Premier League football.\u201d<\/p>\n Since a 2008 takeover from Sheikh Mansour, vice-president and deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, City have become the Premier League\u2019s dominant force.<\/p>\n They have won eight Premier League titles, four FA Cups and seven League Cups over the past 15 years and also won the Champions League for the first time in 2023.<\/p>\n But that same year they were hit by the Premier League with over 100 charges following an investigation into alleged breaches of rules.<\/p>\n The hearing by an independent commission started in September 2024 and concluded three months later.<\/p>\n City expressed \u201csurprise\u201d at the decision and vowed to continue fighting to clear their name.<\/p>\n \u201cManchester 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,\u201d the club said in a statement.<\/p>\n According to Premier League rules, the sanction can vary from a points deduction, a fine or even expulsion from the division.<\/p>\n Everton and Nottingham Forest were handed points deductions in the 2023\/24 season for single breaches of financial sustainability rules.<\/p>\n On that basis, City would face likely relegation if the same penalty is applied for each of the over 100 charges.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is damning beyond belief. My immediate thoughts are, should the board continue? Should the people involved be suspended immediately?\u201d the club\u2019s former chairman David Bernstein told the BBC.<\/p>\n \u201cVery, very serious. I think it\u2019s really terrible. There\u2019s a school of thought with lawyers that is deny, deny, deny, but this is a football club that is part of a league and the whole credibility of the league is at stake here.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sanctions cannot just be financial, so it\u2019s got to be way beyond that. If the appeal fails, Manchester City cannot stay in the league, they have to suffer. And I say that as a supporter and a fan.\u201d<\/p>\n