Soriano breaks silence after major verdict
Manchester City are preparing to appeal one of the most consequential disciplinary decisions in Premier League history, and chief executive Ferran Soriano has now set out the club’s defence in unusually direct terms.
In a video message sent to City employees after the verdict was published, Soriano described the case against the club as being built around a “single false accusation”.
According to ESPN’s report on Soriano’s response, the City executive argued that the central allegation is that money belonging to owner Sheikh Mansour was secretly channelled into the club through sponsors in Abu Dhabi.
Soriano rejects that version of events.
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He said City had supplied bank statements, records of money transfers and witness evidence that, in the club’s view, showed the money did not originate with the owner. He also accused the commission of effectively accepting what he called a “Premier League conspiracy theory”.
The club’s position, however, stands in direct conflict with the conclusions reached by the independent commission.
Commission found ‘sham’ agreements were used
In its official statement on Manchester City, the Premier League said the commission found City guilty of all charges concerning serious financial breaches across the nine seasons from 2009-10 to 2017-18. The majority of charges relating to failures to cooperate with the league’s investigation were also upheld.
The commission concluded that City entered into what it described as “sham” contracts with several commercial partners and relied on other arrangements that did not reflect the true agreements between the parties.
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According to the findings, the schemes allowed City to artificially increase reported revenue and reduce costs by more than £900 million during the period under investigation. The commission also found that the club submitted misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from auditors and football regulators.
Soriano disputes those conclusions and maintains that the evidence City presented was either disregarded or incorrectly assessed.
As Reuters reported, City say the opinion contains significant errors of law, principle and fact and have confirmed that they intend to use the appeal routes available to them.
City says evidence was ignored
Soriano’s intervention is significant because it provides a clearer picture of the argument City intend to make as the case moves into its next phase.
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Rather than merely denying individual accounting breaches, the chief executive is challenging the foundation of the commission’s interpretation.
City’s argument is that payments from sponsors were genuine commercial funds rather than disguised owner investment. Soriano says documentary banking evidence and witness testimony support that position.
The commission reached the opposite conclusion.
Its findings state that owner-linked funding was disguised as commercial revenue through sponsorship arrangements, while other costs were kept away from City’s reported accounts. It also criticised aspects of the club’s cooperation during the investigation.
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That disagreement will now form the heart of City’s appeal.
The verdict is not the end of the case
Despite the scale of the findings, Manchester City’s immediate sporting punishment has not yet been decided.
A separate process will determine any sanction, while City are pursuing an appeal against the underlying judgment. Soriano had already warned fellow European club executives that the dispute could take considerably longer to resolve, after a case that has already stretched across several years.
That means the published verdict represents a major moment rather than the final one.
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For the Premier League commission, the evidence showed a long-running system that distorted Manchester City’s financial position.
For City, the same case remains built on what Soriano describes as one fundamentally incorrect allegation.
The appeal will determine whether that defence can overturn a verdict that, for now, represents the most serious finding yet against the club.
