An independent commission ruled against the club on almost all of the 115 charges. Sanctions are undecided and City are set to appeal.
Manchester City have been found guilty on virtually all of the 115 charges relating to breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations, David Ornstein of The Athletic has reported.
Sources briefed on the decision told The Athletic the independent commission ruled against City on all but one of the 115 charges. No sanction has been decided, and City are expected to appeal the verdict.
Both parties have 14 days to appeal, The Independent reported. An appeal would be heard by a new three-person commission.
The Premier League has not officially announced the outcome, and the case remains confidential and the process is still running.
Liverpool were among the clubs informed that a decision had been reached after a meeting of the 20 Premier League clubs on Thursday.
A Manchester City spokesperson told The Athletic: “The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements to be completed, and subject to strict confidentiality. As such Manchester City FC’s position remains consistent with the club’s statement of February 2023.
“The club has diligently respected due process for eight years on the basis the Premier League board and executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair minded regulator, free from partisan influence.”
Manchester City have denied wrongdoing since the charges were brought and said in 2023 they held a “body of irrefutable evidence” in their defence.
The charges and the hearing
The Premier League charged City in February 2023 after a four-year investigation. The 115 charges cover alleged financial breaches between 2009 and 2018 and a failure to cooperate with the investigation from December 2018.
They comprise 54 counts of failing to provide accurate financial information, 14 counts of failing to disclose full details of manager and player payments, seven counts of breaching the league’s profitability and sustainability rules, five counts of breaching UEFA’s financial regulations, and 35 counts of failing to assist the enquiry.
The independent commission heard the case at the International Dispute Resolution Centre in London.
The hearing opened on 16 September 2024, and closing arguments were made in December 2024. Premier League CEO Richard Masters said earlier this year the process had taken longer than expected.
Sanctions available to the commission range from fines and points deductions to the stripping of titles and expulsion from the Premier League.
Everton and Nottingham Forest were docked points in the 2023-24 season for breaching the league’s profitability and sustainability rules.
The Premier League proposed earlier this year to let clubs settle financial cases by negotiation rather than refer them to a commission.
Background to the Manchester City case
City have won eight Premier League titles and the 2023 Champions League since Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group bought the club in 2008.
Pep Guardiola won six of those league titles, including four in a row from 2021 to 2024, before leaving at the end of the 2025-26 season.
The charges followed the publication of leaked internal emails by the German magazine Der Spiegel in 2018, drawn from the Football Leaks documents. The material alleged City had inflated the value of sponsorship deals tied to their Abu Dhabi ownership.
City have separately challenged the Premier League’s rules on sponsorship deals linked to club owners.
City reported a pre-tax loss of £9.9m in its 2024-25 accounts, the first loss in five years, and said the commission’s review remained ongoing.
UEFA banned City from European competition for two years in February 2020 and fined the club €30m for overstating sponsorship revenue between 2012 and 2016.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned the ban in July 2020 and cut the fine to €10m, ruling that most of the alleged breaches were either not established or fell outside a five-year time limit.
The club may need a CAS overrule once again to mitigate the impact of this guilty verdict.
