Manchester City were charged 1,327 days ago, and the verdict that leaked on Friday is guilty

The Premier League charged Manchester City on 6 February 2023. On Friday, 1,327 days later, the verdict finally leaked: the independent commission has found the club guilty on the majority of the 115 charges. The Athletic, which broke the story, reported that 114 of the 115 counts were upheld. BBC Sport has since confirmed that a decision has been reached and that most of the charges stand.

Nothing is official yet. The Premier League has declined to comment and the written judgment has not been published. There is no punishment either. That needs a separate sanctions hearing, which has not happened and could take months.

What City were charged with

The charges cover nine seasons, from 2009-10 to 2017-18, the first decade of Abu Dhabi ownership. They break down like this: 54 for failing to provide accurate financial information, 14 for failing to give accurate details of player and manager payments, five for breaching Uefa rules including financial fair play, seven for breaching the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules, and 35 for failing to co-operate with the league’s investigation between December 2018 and February 2023.

The case grew out of the Football Leaks documents published by Der Spiegel in November 2018. The central allegation was that money from the owners’ Abu Dhabi United Group had been dressed up as sponsorship from Etihad and Etisalat, so that City could stay inside the spending limits. There were further claims about off-the-books payments to Roberto Mancini, the manager at the time. City have denied all of it from the start.

The hearing began on 16 September 2024 and ran behind closed doors until December that year. Pep Guardiola said in February 2025 that he expected a verdict “within one month”. He has since left the club. It took another 19 months.

City’s response

The club did not deny the leak. Its statement complained about it instead: “The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements to be completed, and subject to strict confidentiality.” It added that City had respected due process for eight years “on the basis that the Premier League board and executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from partisan influence.”

That last line is the tell. City are already building the case that the process was unfair, and the BBC has been told they will appeal. Their legal team is led by Lord Pannick KC, who helped get their two-year Uefa ban overturned at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in July 2020. This time, though, there is no route to CAS. Any appeal goes through the Premier League’s own appeal board.

Rodri, who left City for Barcelona in August, was asked about it on Friday at Spain’s press conference before the England game. “Until the moment they are proved wrong, we will believe the club,” he said. “What we did, they cannot take out of us.”

What the punishment could be

The commission can do almost anything. The options include a points deduction, immediate or suspended, a fine, or expulsion from the Premier League altogether. A points penalty big enough would amount to relegation anyway.

The comparisons people reach for are not really comparisons. Everton were docked six points (cut from ten on appeal) and then two more in 2023-24, and Nottingham Forest lost four. Those were single breaches of the profit and sustainability rules, over one three-year window. City have reportedly been found guilty on the majority of 115 counts across nine seasons, and 35 of the charges were for not co-operating with the investigation itself. No commission has ever been asked to price that.

Then there are the trophies. City won the league three times in the period covered, in 2011-12, 2013-14 and 2017-18, plus the 2011 FA Cup and three League Cups. Whether any of that can be taken back is an open question, and Rodri clearly does not think it can.

The other 19 clubs are already counting

The BBC reports that several Premier League clubs had started taking legal advice on compensation claims before Friday’s news. There is a recent precedent for it. In June, a commission ordered Everton to pay Burnley £35m because Everton’s overspending had hurt Burnley’s chances of staying up. Everton are appealing that ruling.

That was one club and one relegation. Scale it up to nine seasons of title races and relegation fights and the queue of clubs with a claim against City could be long. Then there are the legal costs, and whichever side comes out on top can be expected to claim them.

For now City are guilty, but not officially, and waiting on a punishment nobody has decided. I would be surprised to see it settled before the end of the season, which carries on regardless when the Premier League returns on 10 October.

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