It’s all tainted now
The verdict against Manchester City changes everything we understood about their era
Arguably everyone who bought a Sky subscription in that period now has a claim against City
26 Sep 2026 - THE GUARDIAN / Sport
By Barney Ronay
Welcome, then, to the age of asterisk. Whatever punishment Manchester City and their owners receive at the end of this process, the fact remains, everything is tainted now. Overturn the tables, scatter the gold coins. Throw your medals in the bin. You cheated to win them. Whatever that thing was, it’s done. Stolen glory, stolen income, stolen joy. Every chant, every “we won the lot”, every awkward documentary scene about the deep, throbbing heart of this empire of love. It all looks odd, sinister, cold, sloppy, but also, and this is always the best response, utterly absurd.
This is not over of course. We still work on the principle of innocent until repeatedly proven guilty, pending mega-bucks final appeals. There could yet be a dramatic reversal at the next stage. And if so, fair enough. Trust the process. So for now we must also asterisk the asterisk. It should also be pointed out that City still deny all allegations, even when proven at the first instance. They have also, in fairness, not been found guilty of all of those 100-plus charges. Maybe the club can spin this, take the positives, a vital away charge to take into the appeal.
But for now this is a good day for football. And also a good day for, of all things, the world. The Premier League may seem an unlikely revolutionary. But in the age of despotism, of endless chatter about the decline of the rules-based international order, any tribunal that finds a fund back by the one of the United Arab Emirates’ ruling families guilty of breaches of minor but still vital sporting regulations deserves its own statue outside the Royal Courts of Justice. People in wigs: not always slaves to power, or indeed the enemies of the people.
Mainly this is a great day for the Premier League, which must be commended above all for its refusal to bend. There has been frustration at the time it has taken to reach this verdict. Technically it is a full eight years since Der Spiegel published the first allegations of industrialscale cheating. And spare a thought here too for Rui Pinto, the original whistleblower, currently in witness protection after being found guilty of information-related offences. This verdict suggest football’s greatest vigilante was also right, or right enough. Raise a glass, José Bloggs of Oporto, or whatever you go by these days.
That extreme delay is simply another consequence of taking on an entity that is willing to spend so aggressively on the world’s most energetic lawyers, to threaten to bankrupt the organisation it signed up to serve and nourish. It always seemed worrying that an accusation of not cooperating with financial reporting should take three years to reach a verdict.
But this is testimony to the lawfare-level response. In this context, and pending a proper sanction, the entire case speaks to the basic sanctity of the rule of law, of applying the same rules to all irrespective of status, a small but high-profile rejection of the idea wealth and political heft can steamroller regulation and process.
And that punishment really is key. Because everything is on the cards here, not least the much-trailed potential destruction of the brand. There has always been a whispered suggestion the league is taking a hammer to its own knees in this process. That thing we sold you all those years? Well, it’s not straight. The product you paid for and believed in wasn’t real.
Arguably everyone who bought a Sky Sports subscription in that period now has a legal claim against City. I signed up for sport. This was an exhibition event. But the Premier League has been rigid in the right way. What is that legacy actually worth, how much more damaged will it be, if its owners shy away from their own rules and allow the serial champions to shortcut their way to plastic success? The answer is: very little. At that point we may as well all turn off the lights and abandon the stage to the world of scripted product.
It is important in all this to spare a thought for City fans, who are innocent of anything other than wanting their team to win and believing the evidence presented to their eyes. There will be some who see conspiracy, because they want to, who choose to fight on, or pretend not to understand. We live in an age when even billionaire inherited rulers get to style themselves as victims of oppressive power structures.
But the fact is the rules do matter, even if you think they shouldn’t exist. They matter because other teams were abiding by them. Other teams didn’t buy players, lost bidding wars, lost games and league titles by fine margins during a period when one team was saying, well, thanks but no thanks. This is why cheating matters. You can disagree with the offside law and try to get it changed. But if you just ignore it and keep on hammering the ball into the net, you’ve destroyed your own sport.
City’s fans deserve sympathy generally. They don’t run the club, they simply support it. They have been loyal to their owners, even while those owners, on the basis of this decision, were turning the club into a toxic entity, a parasite on its host and on the basic idea of sport. What is the right response to this? Some will simply feel sad at the tarnishing of memories.
But there is also a legitimate suggestion it is time for those owners to sell up and move on. This has been a disgraceful episode in so many ways: the casual cheating, the refusal to mitigate or compromise, the assault on English football, the attempt to bleed the rest of the field dry.
The fact is anyone with an interest in justice, equality and abiding by universal rules, should be pleased with this, including City fans. Although there is of course still a huge opportunity for the process to hole itself below the waterline.
Guilt followed by a minor slap on the wrist. This would asterisk the asterisk, would provide a complete reversal of all that goodwill. What would be the point of going through this only to blink at the sanctions stage? And yes, this is the job of an independent tribunal, but the league will have agency in how this is interpreted, through its submission and its evidence.
And there is very little mitigation here. Not reporting financial information might sound trivial in another sphere. But in football, where success is defined by expenditure, this is deliberate and highly effective deceit. City have continued to spend freely, to win things under this shadow, in a space where more than simply results and titles are at stake. Football is a zerosum game. When you cheat, you’re taking money and opportunities out of the pockets of others.
Not to mention glory, happiness, life chances, things people work and bleed for all their lives. In their place you’re introducing failure, doubt, career regression, moving home, moving jobs, cutting ties, losing connections, all based on skewed results on a sports field, all based on cheating.
The list of teams that might have won league titles in those years reads: Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal. Perhaps these clubs will even consider suing City for compensation. The Premier League could pre-empt this by stripping titles and reallocating glory. That still feels like an overload of asterisks. But this is what happens when you cheat. You degrade the experience for everyone.
There are two final things worth saying. Last month Bloomberg reported that the UAE had been in touch with the UK government expressing concerns about the Premier League process, and potentially, it was implied, damaging the prospect of that wider relationship. If true, and it is simply a suggestion, this would demonstrate yet another profound misunderstanding of the culture you’re buying into. The law is not supposed to bend to power and influence. Does anyone actually want to live in a world where this is the case?
But then, it is also worth remembering that skimping on some financial rules is hardly the worst thing the UAE has been accused of in those years. There are accusations of supporting the bloodshed in Sudan, as well as numerous human rights abuses, the curtailment of dissent and massive social inequality.
Whatever its ultimate outcome the entire process stands as a warning for every sport with it eyes in a spin at the offer of transformative financial investment. Look very hard at who you get into bed with. Jam today, pain tomorrow. And it never, ever comes for free.
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Everything you need to know about City’s hearing and charges
26 Sep 2026 - THE GUARDIAN / Sport
Jamie Jackson
What has happened?
An independent panel have found Manchester City guilty on almost all of more than a 100 charges of breaking Premier League competition rules between the seasons 2009-10 and 2022-23. The panel found the club had acted in bad faith and broken numerous rules over financial fair play. City, meanwhile, say the process is ongoing and it is understood the club intend to appeal against the guilty verdict.
Was this the result of ‘Football Leaks’?
UEFA found City in breach of its financial fair play regulations in 2014 but reached a settlement under which City paid a €20m (£17m) fine and submitted reduced squads to the Champions League. The revisiting of alleged irregularities came after the document hack known as “Football Leaks” in 2015 exposed what appear to be official documents and email communication from inside City, alongside a number of other football organisations. The allegations against City were published in 2018. These documents are understood to also have prompted the Premier League’s investigation, a four-year process which brought the charges. City have previously described Football Leaks as an “orchestrated campaign” and part of “an endless attempt to damage us”.
What are the accusations?
In February 2023 the Premier League charged the club with more than 100 rule breaches, after investigating the club since December 2018. The charges cover four areas: a failure to give “a true and fair view of the club’s financial position”; 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 investigations”. The counts have been heard by a three-person independent commission, with the process starting in September 2024.
Do we have specifics?
The Premier League published only an extended charge sheet, with no details. The timeframes, however, suggest the charges line up with claims already in the public domain. First, that City inflated the value of sponsorship deals as a means of channelling more money from their owners into the club. Second, that secret payments were made to the manager Roberto Mancini and to Dimitri Seluk, the then agent of Yaya Touré. “Everything was transparent, there was nothing on the back side,” Seluk said in 2023. “I am interested to see what happens as this was a surprise. Yaya paid everything – tax and everything. It was all transparent.” Third, that these acts left the club contravening financial rules. Fourth, that when the Premier League sought to investigate the claims, City obstructed it. City have always denied any wrongdoing.
Why do the charges matter?
Because of their seismic nature and implications. Because they are unprecedented in the domestic game. And because of City’s dominance. In the 14 seasons covered by the charges, City won seven Premier League titles, six League Cups, three FA Cups and the Champions League. Since then they have won another Premier League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. They have played in the Champions League every season from 2011-12. This has driven the global pre-eminence of the Premier League and increasing transfer fees (City’s squad is worth £1bn-plus). There are arguments, too, that it has affected competitive balance here and across Europe, led to the near-development of a breakaway Super League (of which City were a part) and quickened the need for independent regulation of English football. When the charges were brought, the La Liga president, Javier Tebas, said the English top flight was a “doped market”.
What happened next?
Under Premier League instruction, Murray Rosen KC selected three people to form the independent commission that heard the charges, with one member of the panel required to be a financial expert. The hearings were conducted privately. When the verdict is published, either side can go to an appeals panel and, after this, arbitration. If all fails, either could attempt to find an argument to take to the high court. Under the rules of association of the Premier League there is no opportunity for either party to go to the court of arbitration for sport (Cas) in Switzerland.
What could the punishment be?
According to rule W.51 in the Premier League handbook, a commission has the ability to levy a wide range of sanctions against any club found to have broken the rules. These include fines, the docking of points and suspension, or even expulsion, from the competition. In fact, subclause W.51.7 states that the commission can “impose upon the respondent any combination of the foregoing or such other penalty as it shall think fit”. That even leaves open the possibility of City being stripped of their titles.
What have City said?
The club have been bullish from the start. They “welcomed the review” and the opportunity to “impartially consider the comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position”. As reports of the verdict came through yesterday, a spokesperson said: “The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements to be completed, and subject to strict confidentiality. As such Manchester City FC’S position remains consistent with the club’s statement of February 2023. The club has diligently 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.”
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How 18 years unfolded, from £200m takeover to UEFA ban
26 Sep 2026 - THE GUARDIAN / Sport
Compiled by Niall Mcveigh
September 2008
Abu Dhabi era begins
On a dramatic transfer deadline day, the Abu Dhabi United Group (Adug) agrees a £200m takeover. The group, led by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-nahyan – a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family – buys 90% of the club from Thaksin Shinawatra. The new owners immediately pay £32.5m for Robinho from Real Madrid before the window closes.
2009-10
‘Noisy neighbours’
After Mark Hughes led a side featuring Vincent Kompany and Pablo Zabaleta to 10th, the new season starts with a rash of deals, including Joleon Lescott (£22m), Emmanuel Adebayor (£25m) and the former Manchester United forward Carlos Tevez (£25.5m) – complete with provocative poster – leading Sir Alex Ferguson to dub City “noisy neighbours”. Hughes is replaced by Roberto Mancini in December. City miss out on the top four.
2010-11
35 years of hurt over
More big money signings – Yaya Touré, David Silva, Mario Balotelli, James Milner. With the addition of Edin Dzeko (£27m) in January, Mancini steers City to third, into Europe, and past Stoke in the FA Cup final, ending a 35-year wait for a trophy.
2011-12
Etihad deal; Agüerooooo
Financial fair play (FFP) rules are introduced by UEFA. City offer an early test of the new system, announcing a 10-year sponsorship deal with Etihad Airways (the UAE’S national airline). City’s home ground is renamed the Etihad Stadium as part of the deal. The season ends in drama as £38m Sergio Agüero scores in the 94th minute against QPR to win the title.
2012-13
Ciao Roberto
Mancini’s second season ends with United reclaiming the title and defeat by Wigan in the FA Cup final. City sack him and hire Manuel Pellegrini from Málaga. Tevez, Adebayor and Balotelli go, £30m Fernandinho arrives.
2013-14
New York and new rules
City invest $100m to launch New York City FC. The club also create the City Football Group (CFG) company to manage a planned multi-club ownership model. The Premier League, meanwhile, introduces profit and sustainability rules (PSR). City win the title, the League Cup and reach the Champions League last 16. But they are fined a conditional €60m (£49m) by Uefa after recording combined losses of over £150m in 2011-12 and 2012-13. The club are also restricted to a 21-man European squad and £49m net spend over the next season – but have the opportunity to recoup two-thirds of the penalty by meeting future targets.
2014-15
Transfer trouble
The season ends without a trophy. Eliaquim Mangala (£41m) and Wilfried Bony (£25m) flop. But Pellegrini is backed with new recruits Raheem Sterling (£44m) and Kevin De Bruyne (£55m). CFG, meanwhile, announces a £265m deal with Chinese investors for a 13% stake in the club. CFG has by this stage added A-league club Melbourne City and Japan’s Yokohama F Marinos to the fold.
2015-16
Pep on board
Pellegrini’s team labour to fourth place, but win the League Cup and reach the Champions League semis. He is replaced by Pep Guardiola.
2016-17
Difficult debut season
John Stones (£47.5m), Leroy Sané (£37m) and Ilkay Gündogan (£20m) bolster the squad. But City can only finish third and crash out of the Champions League last 16.
2017-18
100 points in the bag
A step up in spending: Kyle Walker (£45m), Bernardo Silva (£43m), Ederson (£35m), Benjamin Mendy (£49.3m), Aymeric Laporte (£57m ). City win the title with 100 points – a new top-flight record – and the League Cup. But mid-season, the German magazine Der Spiegel publishes emails obtained by Rui Pinto’s Football Leaks website alleging City’s owners had broken Uefa’s FFP regulations. Uefa launches an investigation, while City denounce the emails as “out-of-context materials purportedly hacked or stolen”, and allege an “organised attempt to damage the club’s reputation”.
2018-19
Domestic treble
After signing Riyad Mahrez from Leicester for £60m, a new club record, City win the title, retain the League Cup and win the FA Cup. Uefa begins an investigation into the Der Spiegel allegations, with the court of arbitration for sport (Cas) rejecting City’s first appeal in November 2019. That month, the US private equity group Silver Lake makes a $500m investment in the club.
2019-20
Champions League ban
In a bombshell announcement, Uefa ban City from the Champions League for two seasons and fines them £25m for breaking FFP rules. But City win an appeal, the ban is lifted and Cas reduces the fine to £9m for failing to cooperate with investigations by Uefa’s club financial control body. On the pitch in a Covid-disrupted season, City finish a distant second to Liverpool in the title race.
2020-21
Super League fiasco
City, with new signings Rodri (£62.8m), Rúben Dias (£62.1m) and Nathan Aké (£40m), finish 12 points clear to win the title. A fourth straight League Cup is also won, but a first Champions League final ends in a 1-0 defeat by Chelsea. In April 2021 City are revealed to be one of six Premier League clubs signed up to the breakaway European Super League. It collapses within 48 hours.
2021-22
FFP update
City smash their transfer record by paying £100m to sign Jack Grealish from Villa. They later sell Raheem Sterling to Chelsea for £47.5m, while in the winter Ferran Torres joins Barcelona netting City a £27.5m profit. Another epic title battle with Liverpool ends with City on top, winning 93 points to 92. Off the field, Der Spiegel reports that the Premier League has been investigating City’s potential FFP breaches for three years. In February, the Premier League publishes 115 charges against City, to be adjudicated upon at an independent hearing. The number of potential breaches is revised to over 130 across nine seasons.
2022-23
First Champions League
City’s ownership dismisses the charges. On the pitch, Guardiola’s players win 12 league games in a row to overtake Arsenal in the title race, and add the FA Cup with victory over United. Erling Haaland (£51.2m) enjoys an extraordinary first season at the club, scoring 52 goals. Rodri scores in Istanbul as City finally win the Champions League and complete the treble.
2023-24
Four titles in a row
With no movement on the charges, City keep spending, signing Josko Gvardiol (£77.5m) and Jérémy Doku (£55.4m).
The sales of Mahrez and Laporte to Saudi sides and the underused youngster Cole Palmer to Chelsea help balance the books. City again overhaul Arsenal to win a fourth English title in a row. CFG now includes 12 clubs across the globe, including Girona and Troyes. Savinho, who has played for both, joins City in the summer for £30m. City sell Júlian Álvarez to Atlético for £64.4m, then a club-record.
2024-25
Dominance unravels
After an unbeaten start to their title defence, City lose 2-0 at Bournemouth in early November and go on a surprising run of just one win in 13 games in all competitions. Guardiola cannot find a way to stop the rot, with the team falling out of the title race. Mid-season, a private hearing begins in London to try to resolve the charges against City. In a separate legal case, City challenge the Premier League’s new associated party transaction (APT) rules, designed to limit teams’ ability to buy players from, or strike sponsorship deals with, parties related to their ownership. City claim victory on two key issues and assert that the rules were “found to be unlawful”. The Premier League takes a different view, claiming the ruling “upheld the need for the APT system”. On the pitch, after finishing third, City’s season ends with a painful FA Cup final defeat to Crystal Palace, and their Club World Cup journey is abruptly ended by Al-hilal in the last 16.
2025-26
Another overhaul
With a verdict – or even a potential date for one – still to arrive, the club spend about £175m on new signings, with close to £80m recouped through sales. But having failed to keep pace with the league leaders, Arsenal, City spend again in January, another £85m to sign the Palace defender Marc Guéhi and the Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo. With at least 10 firstteam players signed in 13 months, City’s squad rebuild appears complete – but speculation swirls that Guardiola could call time on his tenure. City win both domestic cups but are dumped out of the Champions League by Real Madrid and Arsenal prevail in the title race. Guardiola ultimately confirms his departure before the final league game of the season, against Villa. His former assistant Enzo Maresca is lined up to replace Guardiola in the dugout. That summer, Maresca’s first window sees more big spending, headlined by a British transfer-record equalling £125m move for Enzo f.
2026-27
The verdict
More than three and a half years after the charges are brought, reports emerge of a verdict. City are reported to have been found guilty of all but one charge of more than 100 breaches, but with no immediate details of any sanctions. City do not confirm the decision, saying its case is “ongoing”. The Premier League calls it “a confidential process, we’re not commenting at all”.
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JAMES GILL/DANEHOUSE/GETTY IMAGES
Club’s ruthless approach was always at odds with their image and this inglorious saga still has further to run
For those paying attention the total transformation had been clear from the start of the takeover
The Premier League crowned the club its champions again in 2024, even as it was nearing a hearing
26 Sep 2026 - THE GUARDIAN / Sport
David Conn
David Conn
There is no episode in English football’s history that even resembles a precedent for the epic Manchester City disciplinary drama, which encapsulates the modern game at breaking point. Here was a grand, stoic old club, taken over in 2008 by Abu Dhabi royalty and mega-funded to imperious success, then crowned serial champions by a league simultaneously pursuing charges of monstrous financial cheating.
Yesterday sources confirmed that saga, in which Pep Guardiola’s expensively constructed City teams won five Premier League titles and the Champions League during the years since the investigation began in December 2018, culminated in guilty findings on almost all of more than 100 charges.
There is no precedent either for the scale of these charges: that City failed to provide accurate financial information to the league for nine seasons from 2009-10 to 2017-18 inclusive; failed to provide full details of payment in their contracts with manager Roberto Mancini from 2009-10 to 2012-13; failed to include full payment details in player contracts from 2010-11 to 2015-16; that they breached Uefa’s financial fair play regulations from 2013-14 to 2017-18, the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability regulations from 2015-16 to 2017-18 – and that
City failed to cooperate with the league’s investigation throughout, from its inception in 2018-19 to the 2022-23 season in which the club was charged, including the duty to provide “documents and information to the Premier League in the utmost good faith”.
News of the independent commission’s decision has finally emerged almost two years after the hearing of the charges in late 2024. Those hearings followed a mammoth investigation process, in which the Premier League and its lawyers insistently demanded to see all the documentation it requested, against repeated challenge from the club.
The period of the charges, 2009-10 to 2022-23, runs from the start of all the glittering success attained under the ownership of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, of the Abu Dhabi ruling family, vice president and deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. The era of dominance began with FA Cup victory in 2011 after 35 trophy-less years for the club, then the breakthrough 2012 Premier League title won by Mancini through Sergio Agüero’s celebrated 94th-minute winner.
This stunning exposure of the modern Manchester City’s insides was precipitated in November 2018 by the German magazine Der Spiegel sensationally publishing internal City documents, leaked to it from a hack of City’s emails. Most damaging in that exposé were emails and financial documents that appeared to show Sheikh Mansour’s ownership group was paying the bulk of the multimillion-pound sponsorship of the club by the Abu Dhabi airline Etihad, which includes bearing the name of the stadium.
The published documents suggested that City’s regime, in its determination to spend the vast money required to attain success in modern football, was circumventing the financial fair play (FFP) rules. Introduced by Uefa in 2011, then similarly by the Premier League in 2013, these rules seek to restrain overspending by clubs, particularly on soaring player wages, by limiting the financial losses that owners can fund. Money must be spent from a club’s earned revenue, including TV and commercial rights, income from supporters and sponsorships – owners cannot use a sponsor as a vehicle for putting more funding in.
Since days after the takeover, City’s board has been chaired by Khaldoon Al Mubarak, a senior Abu Dhabi political and business leader, long-term adviser to Mansour’s brother Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of the country and president of the UAE. It took the wider football world some time to understand that such powerful intent and expertise, as well as funding, were really here for City, a club which had suffered some famous cock-ups in the Premier League era, including relegation to the third tier of English football as recently as 1998.
But for those paying attention, the serious, total transformation of City’s fortunes had been clear from the start of the takeover. Although the new era began with huge losses sustained buying top players, including the statement signing of Carlos Tevez from Manchester United in the summer of 2009, Mansour promised long-term investment and success that would make City profitable. Within 18 months, Mansour had invested £395m. There was some perception of reckless spending, and scoffing at the corporate-speak when the manager Mansour inherited, Mark Hughes, was sacked for failing to meet “targets that were agreed and set”. Such mockery and doubts were largely blasted away by Agüero and that landmark 2012 Premier League title.
Huge funds have been spent in all areas: the stadium, building the huge academy and “campus”, buying a multi-club football empire. The hierarchy recognised that Barcelona had been an ideal model, and the new City was constructed along those lines, even to attract Guardiola, the manager who had brought success to the Catalans, finally recruited in 2016. Al Mubarak understood from the incomparably huge publicity at the outset that owning a Premier League club, and making it successful and attractive, was a showcase for Abu Dhabi. Among the roster of sponsors from the beginning was the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, advertising the country to the world via the billboards around the pitch. The hierarchy also put work into embracing the importance of the club and its heritage to supporters, and its community presence, winning friends with significant investment in local facilities.
By 2017-18, the structures were mostly in place, Guardiola had won his first title, Mansour’s personal investment was declared at £1.3bn, and the club moved into profit. Der Spiegel’s exposé landed as an explosive challenge to the project, revealing not only alleged financial manipulations but a ruthless approach within the new City at odds with the public image.
In one of the emails, City’s in-house lawyer, Simon Cliff, wrote that Mubarak was resisting a financial sanction from a previous Uefa investigation, into City’s massive losses of 2012 and 2013, that ultimately led to a settlement. Cliff wrote: “He would rather spend 30 million on the 50 best lawyers in the world to sue [Uefa] for the next 10 years.”
City have always denied any wrongdoing, and the hierarchy met the Der Spiegel coverage with a response that became familiar as the saga developed: outrage and indignation.
“We will not be providing any comment on out-of-context materials purportedly hacked or stolen,” City said in a statement. “The attempt to damage the club’s reputation is organised and clear.”
However, the internal body within Uefa responsible for upholding FFP launched an investigation into the allegations of financial cheating and misleading. City always denied any wrongdoing. The Premier League announced in March 2019 that it too was investigating, but given City’s rollercoaster battle unfolding publicly with Uefa, it garnered little attention and seemed for some time almost theoretical.
In February 2020, UEFA’s adjudicatory chamber concluded that City were guilty of deception over the sponsorships by the club’s main commercial partner, the Abu Dhabi airline Etihad, and the UAE telecoms company Etisalat, and imposed a two-year ban from the Champions League. City appealed to the court of arbitration for Sport, which in July 2020 overturned the findings and the ban, but found that the club had failed to cooperate with the Uefa investigation and imposed a €10m fine.
City then won their third Premier League title under Guardiola, the project approached its dominant peak, and nothing much was heard of any investigation. But then in July 2021 a British court judgment was published, revealing that the Premier League process had been continuing – and that City and their lawyers had been trying to block it at every step.
The judgment revealed that the Premier League had started its investigation into possible rule-breaking in December 2018, in response to Der Spiegel’s coverage that “disclosed details of confidential information obtained from a hack of the club’s email servers”.
Uefa had been criticised in some quarters for not pursuing City for further documents than those published by Der Spiegel, and the court judgment showed that the Premier League was doing so, and insisting on its right to be given more details. City refused to supply information and documents requested by the league, which in August 2019 issued a disciplinary complaint. A commission was set up to decide on that, but City challenged the disciplinary system and commission, as not sufficiently independent or impartial. The Premier League suggested a different way of appointing a commission, but City objected to that too.
The Premier League then brought a legal arbitration process against the club, seeking to force it to provide the documents, and a tribunal of three senior lawyers was appointed to decide that process.
City then challenged that, arguing that the league had no power to bring the arbitration and that the tribunal did not appear to be impartial. The tribunal rejected that and on 2 November 2020 ordered City to provide the documents and information to the Premier League. City had appealed to the high court to strike the tribunal down, and finally in March 2021 a judge, Mrs Justice Moulder, decided the issue, ruling against the club.
Moulder also ruled that her judgment should be published, and that exposed the process, showing that the new Manchester City, rebooted into supreme excellence in every department, had spent two and a half years through its lawyers resisting providing information.
That was about the sum of public knowledge until February 2023, when the Premier League suddenly, solemnly, unveiled the staggering charges against City, alleging widespread, constant financial rule-breaking across almost the whole first decade of the Mansour project.
The headline charges of failing to provide accurate financial information, “in the utmost good faith” that “gives a true and fair view of the club’s financial position, in particular with respect to its revenue (including sponsorship revenue)”, went back to 2009-10, and ran through without a break until 2017-18. Given the light the court judgment had shone on City’s resistance, perhaps the least surprising section in the list was that the league had charged City with failing to cooperate throughout all five football seasons of the investigation.
Three months after those monumental charges were announced, City won the Premier League again. Then in June 2023 Sheikh Mansour and Sheikh Mohamed were in the stands in Istanbul when the project finally reached the pinnacle, the Champions League trophy. In 2023-24, City won the league again: the record-breaking four in a row, Guardiola’s sixth. The Premier League dutifully crowned the gleeful club its champions again, even as its accusations were finally shunting towards a hearing.
Finally now, sources say, this saga has reached a verdict, after six years in which a reconstructed club secured the greatest triumphs in football, in parallel with extraordinary accusations of cheating, misleading and bad faith. Given the way the news has leaked out, with no official confirmation from the Premier League or City, or full judgment from the panel, there is still some way to run. City said the process “remains ongoing, with significant elements to be completed, and subject to strict confidentiality”.
The question hanging over the club and the game for so long, whether City could be stripped of their titles and how extreme any sanctions could be, remains to be answered, and City can apparently appeal against these findings. Whatever unfolds ultimately, an extreme picture, without precedent, has been produced, of English football inside and out, and the times we are in.
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