City supporters are still taking in the scale of the independent commission’s findings against their club, with the question of punishment yet to be decided.
Across the Atlantic, another major sporting organisation has just dealt with its own financial scandal. The NBA imposed severe sanctions on the Los Angeles Clippers last month after an independent investigation found the franchise had circumvented salary-cap rules through off-court financial arrangements involving star player Kawhi Leonard.
The two cases are very different. But the timing, and the involvement of enormously wealthy ownership groups accused of using financial arrangements to circumvent sporting rules, has prompted comparisons.
So what, if anything, can the Clippers case tell us about what happens next at Man City?
Why the Clippers comparison is being made
On 2 September, the NBA announced the findings of an independent investigation conducted by law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
It found that the Clippers had initiated and facilitated off-court income opportunities for Leonard with four companies doing business with the franchise. The team was also found to have induced companies to enter agreements by offering them business and to have paid personal expenses for Leonard and his representatives.
One of those arrangements involved Aspiration, the now-defunct company at the centre of reporting by journalist Pablo Torre.
Torre had previously uncovered a $28m endorsement agreement involving Leonard and Aspiration, raising questions over whether it was being used to circumvent the NBA’s salary cap.
The NBA’s eventual findings went considerably wider.
It fined the Clippers $30m and ordered the franchise to forfeit five consecutive first-round draft picks between 2029 and 2033. Owner Steve Ballmer was suspended from all league and team activities for a year, while Leonard was ordered to pay the league $700,000.
Other senior Clippers executives were also suspended and the franchise was placed under a five-year compliance and monitoring programme.
Torre’s reporting proved significant enough for Pablo Torre Finds Out to win the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting.
Where the comparison with Man City ends
There is an obvious reason the Clippers story has resurfaced following the Premier League’s findings against City.
The independent commission found City guilty of all charges relating to serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules across nine seasons.
It found the club had used sham commercial arrangements as part of a disguised funding scheme which artificially inflated revenues and reduced costs. Three of four alleged breaches concerning City’s duties of co-operation and utmost good faith were also upheld.
City reject the findings and continue to deny wrongdoing.
Beyond those broad similarities, however, comparisons between the two cases quickly become difficult.
The NBA operates a collectively bargained salary-cap system with its own enforcement mechanisms. The Premier League case has been heard through an independent commission under its rules, with sanction to be considered separately and City retaining the right to appeal.
The Clippers punishment therefore offers no reliable guide to the sanction City could eventually receive.
Even the timescales are difficult to compare. The Premier League began investigating City in December 2018, issued its complaint in February 2023 and held a 42-day commission hearing which ended in December 2024.
We’ve previously covered some of the legal proceedings behind the lengthy City case.
Clippers case shows how differently sports can punish breaches
The contrast is perhaps more revealing than the similarities.
The NBA was able to impose financial, sporting and individual sanctions together. The Clippers lost future draft assets, received a record fine and saw their owner and senior executives suspended.
Manchester City’s sanction remains undecided and will be addressed at a separate commission hearing. The Premier League says its rules give a commission broad discretion, including fines, points deductions and other sporting sanctions.
The Clippers case does not establish what should happen to City, nor does it provide a precedent the Premier League can simply follow.
It does, however, provide a timely example of another elite sporting competition dealing with findings that financial rules designed to protect competitive balance had been deliberately circumvented.
The comparison was explored in detail by The Guardian, which placed the two cases alongside each other following publication of the City findings.
For City, there is still no equivalent final answer. The findings are published, the club maintains its innocence and the sanction process remains to come.
What happened in Los Angeles shows what one sporting system chose to do. It doesn’t tell us what Manchester City’s punishment will be.
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