Man City guilty of all serious financial breach charges: Premier League

Manchester City say they are ‘disappointed and surprised’ by the verdict and will appeal.Manchester City have been found guilty of ⁠all charges ⁠of serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons, the league has said in ⁠a statement.City were charged in February 2023 with breaches of the league’s financial rules spanning nine seasons following ⁠a four-year investigation.The club said in a statement it would appeal.An independent commission found that City “arranged ‘sham’ contracts (which ‌misrepresented the true agreement between the parties) with a number of its commercial partners”, the league said on Tuesday.The league added that the commission had found City used schemes “to artificially inflate the club’s revenues, and reduce its costs, by more than 900 million pounds [$1.2bn] during the affected period, to appear to comply with financial rules”.“The ⁠core decision … details how the club systematically ⁠broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade,” said Richard Masters, the chief executive of the Premier League.“There are elements of the case that remain to be ⁠decided, including, importantly, what sanction must follow for these breaches.”City, who deny any wrongdoing, said ⁠they were “disappointed and surprised” by the ⁠commission’s opinion.“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 said.“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.”‘It’s incredibly serious’The commission found City arranged commercial deals whereby companies were only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.