Man City overstated revenue by £854.5m, understated expenses by £66.2m, commission finds

An independent commission reviewing the Premier League's financial charges against Manchester City has concluded that the club overstated its revenue by £854.5 million and understated its expenses by £66.2 million over a nine-year period.

Those two sums add up to £920.7 million. That combined figure gives a more exact picture of the accounting adjustments at issue than the Premier League's earlier characterisation of the amount as above £900 million.

According to the commission, the club provided financial information that was not accurate, and commercial income arrangements were used to make its accounts look better than they actually were.

The period examined runs from the 2009/10 season through 2017/18. It comes after Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan bought the club in 2008.

The Premier League said the commission found City liable on nearly every charge it faced, among them the most serious claims about how it reported its finances.

The biggest piece of the findings concerns revenue. The commission determined that City overstated its revenue by £854.5 million across the period. The Premier League said the arrangements included "sham" commercial deals that artificially increased the club's reported income.

For a club operating under spending limits, reported revenue matters well beyond the income statement. A larger commercial revenue figure can raise the amount a club is permitted to spend under rules that test whether its outlay is sustainable against its income.

The commission therefore concluded that these arrangements were meant to get around Premier League financial regulations by making City's position appear stronger than it really was. City was additionally found to have understated expenses by £66.2 million.

Adding the revenue and cost adjustments together produces the £920.7 million total.

On the financial reporting side, the Premier League said the commission concluded City had "filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances" from its auditors and from football regulators.

The findings centre on information clubs were obligated to give the Premier League, especially on revenue, sponsorship income, related-party transactions and operating costs. The league's initial charges spanned the 2009/10 to 2017/18 seasons.

That point carries weight because the dispute is not only about how large Manchester City's commercial income was. What the commission examined was whether the income and expenses reported to the Premier League genuinely reflected the underlying transactions, and whether those numbers were used to show compliance with the rules.

City has denied the allegations throughout.

The club said it was "disappointed and surprised" by the commission's findings and insisted it was innocent of the Premier League's accusations. City said it had put forward evidence backing its case and contended that the commission's opinion contained material errors of law, principle and fact.

An appeal by City is anticipated, so the commission's decision does not end the matter. City's position is that the sponsorship income was paid by the sponsors, and that the evidence heard in the proceedings supports both its accounting and its commercial arrangements.

The appeal will decide whether the findings stand, are changed, or are affected in some other way as the regulatory process moves to its next stage.

The financial conclusions also do not translate into an immediate sporting penalty. The Premier League said the commission will hold a further hearing to settle the sanctions that flow from the breaches. That leaves possibly substantial financial and sporting consequences yet to be determined.

The case was decided under rules that were in force during the period under investigation. Since then, the Premier League has replaced its Profitability and Sustainability Rules with a new financial framework from the start of the 2026/27 season, made up of the Squad Cost Ratio and the Sustainability and Systemic Resilience rules.

In that new system, clubs' on-pitch spending is capped at a set share of football-related revenue, while other tests look at matters such as liquidity and the strength of a club's balance sheet.

Why the size of the adjustment sits at the heart of the case is straightforward: Manchester City's commercial rise has been a defining part of its evolution since the 2008 takeover. The club went from sitting outside the established group of Premier League title challengers to becoming one of the competition's leading commercial and sporting powers. Since the takeover, Manchester City has claimed eight Premier League titles.

Part of the financial base behind that rise is now subject to regulatory examination for the nine seasons the case covers.

The £920.7 million figure, however, should not be read as a £920.7 million cash payment, loss or fine. It is the total value of revenue the commission found was overstated plus expenses it found were understated over the relevant period. What Manchester City ultimately pays, if anything, will hinge on the sanctions set after the next stage of proceedings and on how any appeal is resolved.

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters called the matter the most significant disciplinary case in the competition's history, while noting that parts of the proceedings, including the appropriate sanction, are still to be settled.

For Manchester City, attention now turns to the appeal. For the Premier League, the next task is deciding what consequences follow from findings it says show the club breached its financial rules systematically across nearly a decade.

Comments

Join the conversation: Sign in

No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.