The word “sham” appears five times in the Premier League’s official guilty verdict against Manchester City, published on Tuesday. It labels contracts, agreements, arrangements and a circular deal on player image rights. It is not the vocabulary of accounting error.
An independent commission upheld 114 of the 115 charges filed by the Premier League, covering all of the serious financial breaches across nine seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18 and most of the counts of failing to co-operate with the investigation. The verdict itself was reached earlier, with reports of the guilty finding first emerging on Friday 25 September before Tuesday’s official publication.
The Premier League’s statement sets out what the “sham” language covers. Manchester City arranged “‘sham’ contracts (which misrepresented the true agreement between the parties)” with a number of commercial partners, and relied on further “‘sham’ agreements” to artificially inflate revenues. Other “‘sham’ arrangements” were used to book lower operating expenses, and a “‘sham’ circular arrangement” moved money through player image rights.
At the centre of the ruling is what Front Office Sports described as a “disguised funding scheme” in which sponsors paid only a portion of the amounts on paper, with the balance coming from the club’s owner, Abu Dhabi United Group. The commission put the artificial inflation of revenues and reduction of costs at more than £900m over the nine-season period.
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Legal weight of a single word
“Sham” is not a rhetorical flourish. In English contract law it describes an arrangement dressed up to look like one thing while doing another, and it carries an implication of intent: parties knowingly acting to mislead. Repeating it five times in a formal disciplinary ruling frames the case as one about design rather than negligence, and that framing is expected to shape the separate sanctions hearing to follow.
The commission also concluded that Manchester City had “made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate” the Premier League’s investigation, upholding three of the four counts of non-co-operation. The club had filed misstated accounts and concealed its true financial position from auditors and football regulators.
City reject ‘opinion’ and signal appeal
Manchester City’s response was published within hours and did not soften.
“Manchester City FC is both disappointed and surprised by the opinion of the Premier League Commission, that has been published today,” the club said.
The club maintained its long-standing position that it is “innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League” and cited “clear material errors, of law, principle and fact” in the commission’s opinion. It signalled it would take the case to “all appropriate regulatory and legal forums”.
Sanction still to be decided
Guilt and punishment are separate here. The Premier League’s statement notes that “the issue of sanction will be addressed separately in a further hearing”, with no date attached. Possible outcomes span fines, points deductions, title-stripping and, at the extreme, expulsion.
City have until Friday 2 October to lodge an appeal against the commission’s findings. The sanctions hearing will follow after that window closes.
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