The clearest sign came in the summer transfer window, when a German lender pulled out of a deal that would have paid Palmeiras up front for the £34m sale of winger Allan to Manchester City. Oldenburgische Landesbank had been set to advance the Brazilian club a lump sum against the future instalments owed by City, before withdrawing from the arrangement entirely, according to Bloomberg reporting.
That withdrawal is not an isolated case. Several of the lenders that routinely finance transfer sales to City are holding back until they can see the scale of any Premier League sanction, according to Bloomberg reporters David Hellier and Eyk Henning. Other institutions named as active in the market include Macquarie, Aldermore and Close Brothers. All declined to comment.
What the lenders are afraid of
The context is the verdict handed down in late September. An independent commission found City guilty on 114 of 115 charges of breaching the league’s financial rules between 2009 and 2018, including commercial arrangements the panel described as sham contracts that inflated revenue by around £830m.
The club lodged its appeal on 1 October, arguing that the findings contain material errors of law, principle and fact. The appeal hearing is set for mid-December, with a ruling expected in early 2027. If the appeal fails, sanctions can range from fines and points deductions to expulsion from the league.
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A financing market City now leans on
Transfer receivables financing is quietly one of the biggest changes in the modern transfer market. The selling club gets its money immediately; a bank takes on the credit risk of the buyer’s future instalments. In English football the practice has grown from £55m in 2020-21 to £779m in 2024-25, according to figures gathered by the Independent Football Regulator.
City are one of the heaviest users on the buying side. The club’s 2024-25 accounts show gross transfer payables of £423m and net transfer debt of £327.6m. A further £450m in transfer business was added across nine signings in summer 2026.
An analysis of lender exposure cited by Bloomberg found that around 85% of City’s two-year transfer instalments are owed to just six selling clubs, among them Chelsea for Enzo Fernández, Nottingham Forest for Elliot Anderson and Palmeiras for Allan. If the financing behind those deals becomes harder to arrange, the selling clubs either wait years for their money or accept a worse price elsewhere, and future sales to City get harder to close in the first place.
City’s position
Chief executive Ferran Soriano has publicly rejected the commission’s findings.
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“The whole Premier League case against us is based on a single false accusation – that the owners’ personal money was somehow and secretly put into the club via some sponsors from Abu Dhabi. This is just not true,” he said in an internal staff video on 29 September, days after the verdict, which was later leaked and reported widely.
City’s position is that the appeal will overturn the ruling, and the Bloomberg reporting is unconfirmed by the club or by any of the banks named. Lenders could also return quickly if the appeal succeeds, or if sanctions are limited to a financial penalty the club can absorb. For now the pressure is at the edges rather than the center of the transfer market: one financing deal has collapsed and several banks have stepped back, but transfers to and from the Etihad are still being completed.
The next hard date is the appeal hearing in mid-December.
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