Premier League confirm Man City guilty of all charges

Manchester City have been found guilty of all charges related to breaches of Premier League financial rules between 2009-10 and 2017-18 by an independent commission, the league has said.

The Premier League said the independent commission found City - who have indicated they will appeal the decision - arranged 'sham' commercial deals with a number of its sponsors during the period, which were part of a disguised funding scheme, whereby those companies were only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.

The commission found that the remainder was funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club.

The league said that now the charges have been proved, the issue of sanction will be addressed separately in a further hearing with the independent commission.

The club has the right to appeal the independent commission’s findings and 2 October to exercise that right.

Further "sham arrangements" the club were found to have entered into enabled the club to record lower operating expenses than they actually incurred, the Premier League's published statement said.

The scheme was found to have inflated the club’s revenues and reduced their costs by more than £900million (€1billion) during the affected period.

The commission found the club had therefore filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators.

The commission concluded that "by its conduct the club clearly intended to circumvent the Premier League rules."

"The core decision establishes the facts of what happened at Manchester City during this period. It details how the club systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade," said Richard Masters, chief executive of the Premier League.

Manchester City said they were both "disappointed and surprised by the opinion of the Premier League Commission."

"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."

More to follow...

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