Manchester City were found guilty of every serious charge of breaching Premier League financial rules between 2009-10 and 2017-18, and of three of the four groups of alleged failures to co-operate with the investigation, in a decision the Premier League confirmed on Tuesday afternoon.
Speaking on Sky Sports after the verdict, Kieran Maguire, the University of Liverpool finance lecturer and author of “The Price of Football”, said he had “never seen anything as damning as this” in his years of covering the game.
His verdict on the numbers was blunter still.
“The quantity of money involved, approximately £900 million over a nine-year period, is a staggering misstatement, and it looks like it’s been a corroborative fraud,” Maguire told BBC Radio 5 Live.
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“The fact that the auditors were unaware of it, there must be collusion at the club.”
What the commission found
The independent commission concluded that the club had arranged “sham” contracts with a number of commercial partners, in which the companies paid only part of the stated sponsorship fee and Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development funded the remainder. That structure allowed City to record artificially inflated revenues and reduced operating costs across the affected seasons.
The Premier League’s statement, published alongside a redacted core decision on Tuesday, put the misstatement at “more than 900 million pounds ($1.2bn)”.
Speaking again on BBC Radio 5 Live, Maguire dismissed the club’s public position that the ruling was flawed.
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“If you Google what the word ‘sham’ means, I’m getting the words fake, false, fraud,” he said.
“It’s very, very significant.”
Manchester City appeal ‘relentless’
The club rejected the finding within hours and confirmed it would go to appeal.
“Manchester City FC is both disappointed and surprised by the opinion of the Premier League commission, that has been published today,” the club said in a statement.
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“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 will therefore be relentless, and where necessary proactive, in any and all appropriate regulatory and legal forums.”
City have until Friday, 2 October 2026 to formally lodge an appeal against the commission’s findings.
Sanctions to be set at separate hearing
Punishment will not be decided by the same panel until a further, closed hearing, at which the Premier League will propose sanctions and the club will argue against them. Available penalties range from fines to points deductions, a transfer ban, the stripping of titles or expulsion from the competition.
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Former City chairman David Bernstein, who ran the club between 1998 and 2003, went further than Maguire on the question of punishment.
“It is damning beyond belief,” Bernstein said. “If the appeal fails, Manchester City cannot stay in the league.”
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy added that expulsion from the Premier League was a live possibility if the verdict stood on appeal.
The Premier League has said the sanctions hearing will remain private and confidential until publication is permitted.
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