The scale of what an independent commission has found against Manchester City is unlike anything else in Premier League history. Between 2009 and 2018, the club used “sham” commercial deals to inflate revenues by more than £900m, the Premier League confirmed after the panel found the club guilty on 114 of the 115 charges. Chief executive Richard Masters called the case “the most significant in Premier League history.”
The verdict was first reported by David Ornstein of The Athletic on 25 September 2026 and confirmed by the Premier League four days later. Sporting punishment now falls to a separate hearing, and only after Manchester City’s expected appeal.
But a bigger question sits behind the sporting one. If the panel is right that hundreds of millions in income were manufactured, and if image rights deals with players and former manager Roberto Mancini were built on circular contracts funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), the Premier League rulebook may not be the only rulebook that applies.
Maguire sees little for HMRC to pursue
On BBC Radio 5 Live, football finance expert Kieran Maguire was asked whether HMRC, the UK government body that collects income tax and national insurance, could now open its own investigation into City.
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“I think it’s unlikely,” Maguire said.
His reasoning, reported by GiveMeSport, was pragmatic. Football clubs at City’s spending level rarely turn a profit, and the inflated spending was only possible because owner financing was routed through undisclosed channels rather than genuine sponsorships, which makes any traditional tax recovery difficult.
“There’s not a lot for them to go on. There’s certainly no corporation tax to recover, because football clubs lose money, and Manchester City would have lost more money had it not been for the activities that it’s undertaken,” Maguire said.
Where a probe could still start
Maguire acknowledged that there could theoretically have been an underpayment of PAYE and national insurance on the parallel contracts uncovered by the commission. That is a smaller and more technical exposure than a fraud case, but it is one HMRC could examine independently of what the Premier League decides to do.
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The commission’s own findings sketch out the terrain. City were found to have arranged sham circular arrangements with an entity called Fordham, which purchased the club’s players’ image rights and was funded by ADUG. Any employment income moved through such structures sits, in principle, inside HMRC’s remit.
Manchester City reject the entire premise. The club says the commission’s opinion contains “clear material errors, of law, principle and fact,” and maintains it is innocent of the accusations. Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, quoted by Al Jazeera, said the club’s “confidence and intent in proving the club’s innocence is just as strong as when this began.”
City’s appeal deadline: Friday 2 October
The immediate deadline is sporting, not tax-related. City have until Friday 2 October to lodge their appeal, according to Sky Sports. A new three-person commission would then hear the appeal before a further, separate commission sets the actual sanction, which can range from fines to points deductions to expulsion from the Premier League.
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