City have been found guilty of serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules, with the independent commission’s written findings revealing the scale of the case against the club.
The commission found that Manchester City used sponsorship arrangements it described as “shams” as part of a disguised funding scheme between 2009-10 and 2017-18. City continue to deny wrongdoing and have confirmed their intention to appeal.
Supporters already knew about the official guilty verdict, but the publication of the redacted 40-page core decision has provided considerably more detail about how the commission reached its conclusions.
The £830m finding at the heart of the Manchester City ruling
The largest figure contained in the findings relates to sponsorship agreements with Abu Dhabi-based companies.
Across the nine seasons investigated, City recorded £949.94m in sponsorship revenue from those companies. The commission found that £119.25m represented base fees paid by the sponsors, while the remaining £830.69m consisted of what the judgment calls “tagged sums” funded by Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), which owned the club.
The commission concluded that the sponsorship arrangements were shams and that the effect was to give regulators and auditors a misleading picture of the club’s commercial revenue.
It said the arrangements:
“gave the misleading impression to third parties (including regulators and its auditors) in its financial statements and any required FFP returns that its commercial revenues from sponsorship agreements were far, far greater than was in fact the case.”
The commission also found that City’s financial statements between 2009-10 and 2017-18 did not provide a “true and fair view” of the club’s financial position.
What the commission said about City’s explanation
City disputed the Premier League’s interpretation of the sponsorship arrangements. The club’s case was that the sponsors remained liable for the full value of their agreements but had, at various times, received financial assistance from the Abu Dhabi government to meet those obligations.
The commission rejected that explanation. It concluded that the account had been:
“concocted well after the event in an attempt to obscure and conceal the realities of the Disguised Funding Scheme.”
That is among the strongest passages in the published decision. City maintain that the commission reached the wrong conclusions and intend to challenge the ruling through the appeal process.
Project Longbow and the Fordham Arrangement
The judgment also examines Project Longbow, an initiative launched by City as the club sought ways to increase revenue and reduce operating losses.
The commission accepted that several elements of Project Longbow were genuine. Its findings were different, however, in relation to an arrangement involving a third party called Fordham and players’ image rights.
Under what became known as the Fordham Arrangement, the commission found that City overstated income by £24.5m and excluded £49.414m of operating expenses from their accounts.
It described Fordham as “little more than a front for ADUG” and concluded that the arrangement provided another means by which owner funding could enter the club without its true origin being reflected in the accounts. Three separate remuneration arrangements were also found to have kept approximately £16.8m of costs out of City’s accounts.
Taken together, the various arrangements resulted in more than £900m of income and costs being incorrectly presented in City’s accounts, according to the commission’s findings.
City found guilty on all serious financial charges
City were found guilty of all charges relating to serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules between 2009-10 and 2017-18. The commission also upheld the majority of the charges relating to City’s cooperation with the Premier League investigation.
It found that the club had made “concerted efforts to stop and frustrate” the investigation. The commission also concluded that some witnesses had provided false evidence, while others had knowingly given untrue evidence.
City reject the findings. Their position is that they have evidence supporting their case, and the club have confirmed that an appeal will follow. The findings also provide further context to previous allegations concerning manager remuneration, although names relating to some of the remuneration arrangements have been redacted from the published decision.
What happens next for Manchester City?
For all the detail contained in the core decision, one major question remains unanswered: the sanction. No punishment has yet been announced. City have until Friday, October 2 to appeal the commission’s findings, something the club have already confirmed they intend to do.
That means publication of the judgment is a major development rather than the end of the case. What has changed is the amount of information now in the public domain. The figures, sponsorship arrangements and commission’s assessment of City’s evidence can now be examined in considerably greater detail than when the verdict first emerged.
The BBC Sport report on the ruling provides further detail, while Sky Sports’ analysis examines the disguised funding scheme and Fordham Arrangement.
City’s appeal means the commission’s conclusions will now be challenged again. Until that process is completed, the findings published this week represent the independent commission’s judgment of what happened during the nine seasons at the centre of the case.
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