Man City found guilty of Premier League financial rule breaches
The Premier League confirmed on Tuesday that Manchester City have been found guilty of all charges relating to financial rule breaches between 2009-10 and 2017-18. The Man City financial breaches case follows an independent commission hearing that examined close to a decade of the club’s accounts.
City overstated their income by more than £830m during that period, the commission found, using a scheme the club called Project Longbow. In its 40-page report, the Premier League said City had committed “extremely serious, significant, sustained and intentional or reckless breaches of rules critical to the proper and fair operation of the Premier League’s league competition.”
Independent commission report details Project Longbow and Fordham
The commission’s findings trace the case back to 2012. “In 2012 the club launched what it termed Project Longbow,” the panel wrote, describing a scheme made up of several separate strands of work aimed at improving City’s finances.
The panel largely accepted City’s own account of why the project began. “We accept the club’s explanation that Project Longbow was a multi-strand project whose purpose was to explore how the club might boost its revenues and reduce its operating losses,” the commission said. It drew a clear line, though, between the legitimate parts of the scheme and one that was not: “Many of the strands of Project Longbow were genuine, legitimate attempts to achieve those aims. One was not. That was the Fordham Arrangement.”
According to the commission, Fordham acted in reality as little more than a front for Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development Ltd, the club’s owner. The company was used to channel funds into Manchester City, and the panel said this left City’s published accounts misleading for years.
“The club’s financial statements for the seasons between 2009-10 and 2017-18 did not show a true and fair view of the club’s financial position,” the commission said. It added that “the club’s income across those years was consequently hugely overstated by over £830m.”
Evidence gathering and timeline of the 42-day hearing
The case was heard over 42 days in the final quarter of 2024, with the commission taking evidence from 27 witnesses. Lawyers on both sides worked through a core bundle of documents that ran to tens of thousands of pages, the Premier League said.
The panel acknowledged that the sheer scale of that material played a part in how long its verdict took to arrive. “It has taken us much longer than we would have wished, and much longer than we had anticipated would be the case when the hearing concluded, to produce our decision,” the commission said.
What happens next as Premier League decision unfolds
The Man City financial breaches case now moves into its next phase. Tuesday’s report establishes guilt but doesn’t set out a punishment, and the Premier League hasn’t confirmed what sanction, if any, will follow, or when that decision will be reached.
Supporters wanting to understand that next stage can read our explainer on the appeals process after guilty findings, alongside our breakdown of potential sanction outcomes. The verdict also lands in a week when City’s finances have already faced scrutiny elsewhere, after separate historical contract allegations resurfaced.
The Premier League’s full 40-page findings, covered in this independent investigation report, remain the fullest public account of what the commission established after its 42-day hearing.
