Beyond the Pitch: Manchester City’s Verdict and Its Wider Ripples

On 29 September 2026, the Premier League announced that an Independent Commission had found Manchester City guilty of all charges relating to serious breaches of the League’s financial rules across nine seasons, from 2009/10 to 2017/18.

The Commission also upheld three of the four alleged breaches of the club’s duty to co-operate with the League’s investigation.

The investigation commenced in December 2018, following a series of articles published by Der Spiegel in November 2018, based on a 2017 hack of the club’s servers. The articles alleged, inter alia, that the actual sources of the club’s recorded sponsorship fees differed from those officially reported.

Richard Masters, Chief Executive of the Premier League, described the case as the most significant disciplinary case in Premier League history.

The club’s ownership by an Abu Dhabi-based investment company has given the verdict a reach well beyond football.

The findings

The Commission found that the club arranged ‘sham’ commercial deals with a number of its sponsors as part of a disguised funding scheme.

Under the scheme, those sponsors paid only a portion of the sponsorship fees, and the club’s owner, Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), funded the rest.

ADUG also funded further ‘sham’ arrangements that let the club record lower operating expenses than it actually incurred.

In addition, ADUG funded a ‘sham’ circular arrangement with Fordham, an entity that bought the club’s players’ image rights.

The Commission found that these schemes were intended to inflate the club’s revenues and reduce its costs by more than £900 million, so it would appear to comply with financial rules.

The Commission found that, as a result, the club filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators. It also found that, had all of the relevant agreements been reported accurately, the club would have been in breach of both the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules and UEFA’s Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations by a very substantial amount.

Status

The sanction will be decided at a separate, private hearing before the Commission.

The Commission’s options include fines, points deductions and other sporting sanctions.

On 2 October 2026, the Premier League confirmed that the club had appealed against the Commission’s decision. The Appeal Board hearing will also be private.

The club has denied any wrongdoing.

Beyond football

The club is owned by ADUG, a private investment company belonging to Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice-President and Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE.

The case has therefore prompted discussion of what it might mean for UK–UAE diplomatic and trade relations, including investment.

Why it matters

Ownership of sports clubs increasingly involves cross-border investment, so regulatory outcomes in sport can matter beyond the sport itself. In this case, the verdict has led to discussion of UK–UAE diplomatic and trade relations, not just its sporting consequences. With the sanction and appeal still pending, investors, clubs and regulators will be watching how the process plays out. They will also be watching whether it is seen to run independently of those wider interests.