Manchester City guilty of breaching Premier Leagues financial fair play rules – live reaction

That closes the live blog for today. The day was always likely to come. There may be many more to follow.

Strong thoughts from Simon Hattenstone, The Guardian's resident Manchester City fan.

It's called Cityitis – shorthand for our tendency to self-destruct when things appear to be going well. In fact we won trophy after trophy. But we continued to sing the song about going down with a billion in the bank. When the financial fair play investigation was launched in 2018, the chant got louder. Then in 2023 we learned there were more than 100 charges. The chant became even louder and more cavalier. And now that our grubby, griftin', cheatin' chicken has come home to roost, you can bank on one thing (if banks still deal with us) – the chanting will be louder and more cavalier than ever.

Kevin O'Dell gets in touch: “Stefan Borson (18:21) has some fair points regarding the potential impact on Man City. My question, more generally, is the impact on the Premier League. The rules, and their implementation, are down to the clubs to agree. The Premier League in its present form is not fit for purpose. This, to my mind, is why the PL might steer clear of big sanctions as they will only reflect on, and magnify, their inadequacies.â€

Enigmatic social media from Pep Guardiola's successor as Manchester City manager, Enzo Maresca.

“Time to breathe.
Time to analyse.
Time to learn.â€

Manchester City and the Premier League have fought battles before, over rules that limit the ability of top-flight clubs to sign sponsorship deals with companies related to their ownership.

It was always maintained this was a separate case to the 134 charges and hostilities eventually ended.

“The Premier League and Manchester City FC have reached a settlement in relation to the arbitration commenced by the club earlier this year concerning the Premier League's associated party transaction (APT) rules, and as a result have agreed to terminate the proceedings,†the parties said in a joint statement.

There has been no such joint statement today. Or seems likely in the near future.

Hasan gets in touch: “This process is already resembling something akin to an episode of The Sopranos – part high drama, part sinister intrigue, part hilarity. It's funny enough that the firefighting hotshot lawyer hired by City went by the name Lord Pannick, and that somehow the club was found innocent with regard to one single offence among the 115 charges.

“Now the Premier League, never to be outdone for slapstick, is insisting that this is a “private and confidential processâ€. I suppose they're going to request that anybody reading the headline news splashed across all outlets today kindly put their devices down, cover their ears, close their eyes and start shouting “la-la-la-la-la!†You've got to laugh.â€

Stefan Borson, a former Manchester City employee – before the 2008 takeover – who has been across this story for media outlets, had this to say to the BBC: “It's incredibly serious. A complete finding for the Premier League clearly makes it even worse. You've now got a situation where this is going to go to a sanction hearing, which will look at what the punishment should be.

“It will be going with the worst possible set of circumstances to that sanction hearing, City guilty of everything. With built-in aggravating factors such as the non-cooperation, the nature of the charges that we believe are now proved or such that they will demand very severe punishment.

“And when we see the five, six, seven-hundred-page decision, you can expect it to say some really quite serious things about the people who have given evidence and the way in which Manchester City have behaved.â€

The prime minister, Andy Burnham, has been asked about the Manchester City developments.

He told ITV Granada Reports: “I've only just been made aware of it – I think these are reports at this stage. But if they're confirmed, obviously I will want to look at the report of the independent commission.

“People shouldn't jump to those kind of conclusions. I know, this has been a long process between the club and the Premier League. I think quite a contested process. So I don't think it's as simple as jumping to conclusions. I think we would all need to study the independent commission's report in some considerable detail before reaching any conclusions.â€

Dame Caroline Dinenage, the chair of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee, also said: “The reports about the Premier League's findings against Manchester City FC have profound implications for our national game. The extraordinary length and cost of this process raise serious concerns, and the affair again gives rise to questions about financial fairness across the football pyramid.

“The matter must be allowed to take its course and due process must be followed, but I sincerely hope any further stages are completed as swiftly as is reasonably possible.â€

It's international break time, lest we forget, and Paul MacInnes reports on the Ireland v Israel double-header in the Nations League.

Previous punishments, via the Press Association.

2023-24: Everton and Nottingham Forest

Two clubs were sanctioned over breaches of the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules in season 2023-24, exacerbating relegation fears at both – although they ultimately survived. Everton were deducted 10 points on one charge, reduced to six on appeal, and then docked a further two points on a second charge, making eight in total. Forest were deducted four points and failed in an appeal.

2021-22: Derby

Wayne Rooney's Rams were left facing an impossible fight to avoid relegation from the Championship after a 12-point deduction for entering administration was followed the stripping of a further nine points for financial irregularities.

2009-10: Portsmouth

Pompey had nine points taken from their tally after entering administration, effectively condemning them to relegation after a seven-year spell in the top flight.

2008-09 Luton

The Hatters, then in League Two, crashed out of the EFL after being stung with a record deduction of 30 points. Ten of these were imposed by the Football Association for making irregular payments to agents and a further 20 came from the EFL for failing to satisfy its insolvency rules.

2008-09: Bournemouth, Rotherham and Darlington

In what was a grim year for such matters, Bournemouth, Rotherham and Darlington were docked 17, 17 and 10 points respectively after going into administration.

2007-08: Leeds

The gloom that had enveloped Leeds for years, seeing them slump from the Premier League to League One amid a seemingly endless financial crisis, deepened as they were deducted 15 points for breaking insolvency rules.

1996-97: Middlesbrough

Boro were deducted three points for failing to fulfil a fixture against Blackburn, the club claiming they did not have enough fit players due to a virus in the camp. It proved controversial – and highly costly – as they were relegated by two points.

1990-91: Arsenal and Manchester United

The Football Association clamped down hard after a brawl broke out involving 21 players during a clash between the Gunners and United at Old Trafford. Arsenal were deducted two points and United one, but it did not prevent the London side going on to win the First Division title.

1989-90: Swindon

Swindon's joy at winning the 1990 Second Division play-off final – and promotion to the top flight – proved shortlived as they were immediately demoted two tiers for making illegal payments to players. The punishment was later reduced to a one-division demotion, leaving them back in the second tier while Sunderland went up instead.

Some lawyer comment via the Press Association:

“Paul Stothard, a partner at global law firm Norton Rose Fullbright: “This result, if upheld, will open the floodgates to further legal challenges.

“Manchester City being found liable for 114 out of 115 rule breaches means that other clubs may choose to pursue compensation for lost revenue, missed European qualification or relegation – though they would need to be able to prove how City's breaches impacted on their own ability to compete and their quantifiable loss.

“The outcome underscores the need for regulatory mechanisms in professional football and, moving forward, could help reshape how football governance balances commercial interests with the principles of fair play in what is now a multi-billion-pound competition.â€

Kavan Bakhda, a partner and head of the sports group at Mishcon de Reya: “If the charges against Manchester City are proven, this would be the most significant disciplinary decision in the history of English football.

“However, it is important not to get ahead of the formal process. We have yet to see the independent commission's written decision, the reasoning behind its conclusions and, crucially, what sanctions might follow. The detail of the written decision will matter enormously.

“If Manchester City has been found guilty of the alleged breaches, attention will now turn to the nature and severity of any sanction. The Premier League's rules provide for a wide range of potential sanctions, from financial penalties and points deductions through to, in the most extreme circumstances, expulsion from the competition.

“Any appeal could add a further significant stage to the process. Until the commission's decision is published and any appeal has been determined, it will be difficult to assess the full consequences for Manchester City, the Premier League and its clubs.â€

Business as usual on the Manchester City official socials, with this release timed for 5.30pm UK time: “Say hello to Little Beast, another addition to @MedlockSQ‘s restaurant collection! ðŸ½ï¸ The menu evolves with the seasons, reflecting the changing produce, flavours and stories each full moon brings and is open every day 8:00-20:00 (UK) 🌙â€

Looks delicious, to be fair.

Jake gets in touch: “Let us take today's decision as a moment to reflect on the serious reforms that must be made in football. The staggering number of financial improprieties that Manchester City have been found guilty of has irreparably damaged the spirit of the game. The sacred trust we supporters have in the ideal of fair play is now worn threadbare and in dire need of repair. All we can hope for is that the Premier League has the ability to restore our faith that this beloved game is being played on as even a field as possible and that, going forward, athletic merit alone will be the deciding factor in determining success.â€

An updated explainer on the Manchester City case, via Paul MacInnes and Jamie Jackson.

What are the accusations?

In February 2023 the Premier League charged the club with more than 100 rule breaches, after investigating the club since 2019. The charges cover four areas: a failure to give “a true and fair view of the club's financial positionâ€; a failure to “include full details†of player and manager remuneration; breaches of national and continental financial fair play regulations; and a failure to “cooperate with, and assist, the Premier League in its investigationsâ€. The counts have been heard by a three-person independent commission, with the process starting in September 2024.

While we rubberneck the City situation, some stories you might have missed.

A lucky escape?

Via the Associated Press: City did not confirm the decision, saying its case with the Premier League was “ongoing†and yet to be completed. City, however, would appeal a guilty decision and the process would take several months, a person with knowledge of the situation told AP. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to respect confidentiality elements of the process.â€

As further background, a David Conn background piece from 2020, on the original Der Spiegel Football Leaks case.

The emails, splashed by Spiegel with evident relish across a series of exposés, punched into City's expertly and expensively created modern image in three broad areas relating to Uefa's financial fair play rules, which were introduced in 2011 to deter clubs from overspending.

First, and most damaging, were emails and accounting documents which appeared to show that City's owner, Sheikh Mansour, of the Abu Dhabi ruling family, was mostly funding the huge, £67.5m annual sponsorship of the club's shirt, stadium and academy by his country's airline, Etihad. That created a perception that the Abu Dhabi hierarchy, in their drive to mega-spend on City attaining elite status while somehow complying with FFP rules, had deceived Uefa in their financial submissions. This serious trouble for City sprang from a tiny number of emails, a fraction of the documentary dump provided to Spiegel by its source, Rui Pinto.

NB: Following the publication of the leaks, City refused to respond at all to Spiegel, the rest of the media and to Uefa, until the IC, having initially responded uncertainly, decided it had to investigate. City denounced the use of the emails as “out-of-context materials purportedly hacked or stolenâ€, and alleged there was an “organised and clear attempt to damage the club's reputationâ€.

What sanctions may await? Some recent case law, via Reuters: “Everton were docked a total of eight points during the 2023-24 season after two separate breaches ​of the Premier League's Profitability and ‌Sustainability Rules, while Nottingham ​Forest were deducted four points for ​a breach of the same rules in March 2024.

“Newcastle United narrowly avoided potential sanctions after selling players before a June 30, 2024, financial reporting deadline to comply with spending regulations. The allegations against City are far broader and cover more than a decade, making the case unprecedented in scale. Lawyers, club executives and supporters across the league have spent years awaiting a verdict.â€

From a Premier League rights holder: “Sky Sports News understands that the process is moving to the appeal stage. The Premier League is not commenting as this is a private and confidential process. It will not be providing any guidance.â€

That suggests a long way to go in this process. To the lawyers, the spoils?

Jack Crosby gets in touch: “I know it is fun to see who came runners-up in the competitions which City won, but it does really open a can of worms in reallocating winners unfortunately.

â€Take the 2017-18 season. United finished second, just 4 points ahead of Spurs. Both United and Spurs played deep into the FA Cup, and will have rested players ahead of their semi-final match-up which will have impacted their league results. If they were in a title race, the league games would definitely have taken priority over the FA Cup, and so reallocating a winner in a season where the race for 2nd place was relatively insignificant to what else was on offer for the clubs involved is nonsensical. Liverpool were 6 behind United and their end of season league form was atrocious as they prioritised the Champions League run which saw them lose to Real Madrid in the final.

“Unfortunately, the entire Premier League has been brought into disrepute. City should be stripped of their titles and removed from the league, but the titles should not be reallocated. The league should mark “No Winner†or “No Champion†as a permanent reminder of their negligence in allowing City to do what they did, and of City's guilt.

“Just as the Tour de France has done so with drugs cheats, they have owned up and said “our sport was not clean, and we are as responsible as anybody for that†– the honour roll will always remind people of that.â€

Steven Grundy gets in touch: “Do you think that the Premier League can survive this? Surely this decision voids all the special moments, notably the “Agueroooo†moment. If I were, say, head of Sky Sports, I would be livid.â€

Feels like Georgie Thompson's voiceovers may need to be re-recorded on the Premier League Years.

Leading the City team was David Pannick KC, one of the foremost barristers of his generation, renown for representing the rich and powerful. Previous clients include Queen Elizabeth II, Boris Johnson, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and more than one billionaire sheikh.

Lawyers may not earn as much as the Erling Haaland's £500,000 a week but Pannick charges a none too shoddy £5,000 an hour. In 2019, Pannick charged £407,250 for defending Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, a former Qatari prime minister, involving a two-day trial, which the crossbench peer did not attend.

Some quotes from 2023 as the charges were brought. The wait since has been lengthy.

10 February 2023

Pep Guardiola: “It's â the same as what happened after Uefa (charges), â these are just charges. With Uefa the club proved ​it was completely innocent. We are lucky we live in a marvellous country where everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

24 May 2023

Guardiola: “Let's go. Don't â wait two years. Why don't we do it quicker? In 24 hours, sit down with lawyers present. Let's have it as soon as possible for the benefit of everyone,†he said.

19 June, 2023

City Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak: “I hope people focus and judge them [the players] â for their football, what they're achieving on the pitch and what they're achieving in every competition they're in.

David Howell also got in touch: “Fifth in 2019-20, fifth in 2020-21; all else being equal (ceteris paribus, as the lawyers would no doubt put it), that's two Champions League cash injections denied to them by Abu Dhabi, and how different does that club look now in an environment where they get those?â€

John Welsh gets in touch: “The list of alternative winners between 2008 and 2023 makes quite fun reading…

• 2010–11 FA Cup: Stoke City

• 2011–12 Premier League: Manchester United

• 2013–14 Premier League: Liverpool

• 2013–14 League Cup: Sunderland

• 2015–16 League Cup: Liverpool

• 2017–18 Premier League: Manchester United

• 2017–18 League Cup: Arsenal

• 2018–19 Premier League: Liverpool

• 2018–19 FA Cup: Watford

• 2018–19 League Cup: Chelsea

• 2019–20 League Cup: Aston Villa

• 2020–21 Premier League: Manchester United

• 2020–21 League Cup: Tottenham Hotspur

• 2021–22 Premier League: Liverpool

• 2022–23 Premier League: Arsenal

• 2022–23 FA Cup: Manchester United

• 2022–23 Champions League: Inter Milan

“Congrats to Alex Ferguson, Brendan Rogers, Jurgen Klopp, Mikel Arteta, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on your league titles. Well done to Dean Smith, Maurizio Sarri, Erik ten Hag, Arsene Wenger, Mauricio Pochettino, Gus Poyet, Tony Pulis and Javi Gracia on your cup wins, as well as to Simone Inzaghi for ending Italy's long Champions League drought.â€

Stepping away from Manchester City briefly, this story, via AFP: “Switzerland has lost a second player from its Nations League squad because of years-old cases of fake Covid-19 documents .

“Breel Embolo will not join the squad in Scotland as planned, the Swiss soccer federation said Friday, due to fresh reporting in national media about his past case of obtaining forged test certificates in 2021. This decision aims to allow the team to remain fully focused on the next matches,†the federation said about the Atlanta United forward.

“Switzerland captain Granit Xhaka agreed with team officials last weekend to withdraw from the squad because he is implicated in an investigation of a doctor issuing fake vaccination certificates during the Covid-19 pandemic. Xhaka, the Swiss record holder with 152 caps, admitted getting the forged document in 2022 and accepted he made mistakes.â€

Further detail from our news story:

“The unprecedented catalogue of charges related to five distinct areas of alleged rule-breaking. More than 80 charges related to a club's obligation to act in “the utmost good faith†when relaying information to the Premier League and to give complete disclosure of any information requested. These claims pointed towards the league's belief that City had given an inaccurate picture of the club's financial situation and withheld documents that might have cast greater light on it.

“The rest of the charges related to alleged breaches of profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) and the related Uefa financial fair play regulations. Finally, 20 charges related to the club's obligation to provide “full details of … remunerationâ€, with breaches being claimed in the rules relating to the payment of players and managers.â€

Via Reuters: “The Premier League declined to comment. ‘It's a confidential process, we're not commenting at all,' a spokesperson said.â€

Here's our story on Manchester City being found guilty of almost all charges.

Manchester City face substantial sanctions from the Premier League after an independent panel found they had acted in bad faith and broken numerous rules over financial fair play.

The Premier League did not issue a statement but sources confirmed to the Guardian that City had been found guilty on almost all of more than 100 charges. City are surprised at the timing of the news because they say the process is ongoing. It is understood the club intend to appeal against a guilty verdict, confident of winning.

A verdict has been reached more than three and a half years after 134 charges, which cover the seasons 2009-10 to 2022-23, were brought by the Premier League and more than two years since arbitration hearings began. From season 2009-10 to 2022-23 inclusive City won seven Premier League titles, a Champions League, three FA Cups and six League Cups.

Further detail, this via Reuters.

The Premier League referred City to an independent commission in February 2023 ​over alleged breaches of finance rules spanning ‌the 2009-10 to 2022-23 ‌seasons. The club have consistently denied wrongdoing.

Among the most serious allegations was ‌that City failed in each season from 2009-10 to 2017-18 to provide accurate financial information giving a “true and fair view†of revenues, including sponsorship income, and operating costs.

City hired lawyer David Pannick to lead their defence, while the Premier League was represented by Adam Lewis KC, according to ‌British media reports.

The hearing began on September 16, 2024, and concluded nearly three months later on December 6. The case was ​heard by an independent commission composed of three judges appointed by the independent chair of the Premier League Judicial Panel.

Ah well, there's always Oasis 2027 on 4, 6, 8, 11, 12, 15, 18, 19, 22, 25, 26 June. Will the Etihad be a Premier League ground? Will the case be closed by then? So much left hanging, including why we got to hear about this now, when details remain so sketchy.

How now to view these key moments in the City timeline? City fans may not, but the wider world will view with an asterisk. There are legal avenues to follow but who can speak for the court of public opinion?