Ever since Sheikh Mansour ibn Zayed Al Nahyan bought Manchester City Football Club through his Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008, the club has splashed more than a billion pounds in player transfers, high-profile managers, coaches, and salaries.
The club has been often criticized for not playing fair in transfers, using their financial muscle to wane off competition by rivals, and winning numerous silverware during this 15-year ownership.
It has been revealed that Manchester City’s spending spree and financial records have been under investigation by the Premier League since 2019, and the club has now been charged for breaching numerous Premier League financial rules between the 2009 and 2017/18 seasons as listed below.
Manchester City allegedly breached Premier League rules that require clubs to provide accurate financial information that represents the true view of their financial position, and that this information is provided in utmost good faith to the Premier League authorities. This financial information should include things like the club’s revenue, its related parties and operation costs.
According to Premier League, the club also breached the rules that required them to provide full details of the manager’s salary and benefits in its contract with the manager. This is specifically to the period between the 2009/10 season and the 2012/13 season inclusive. Italian manager Roberto Mancini was Manchester City’s manager during this period.
The investigations also found that the club allegedly broke the Premier League rules that require them to provide full details of player remuneration within the relevant contracts. This happened between the 2010/11 and 2015/16 seasons. Manchester City have one of the biggest wage bills in the Premier League.
The League also alleges that Manchester City breached the rules that require its members to fully comply with the UEFA financial fair play regulations. The charge sheet says that this happened between the 2013/14 and 2017/18 seasons. It should be noted that UEFA charged and banned Manchester City transfers for breaching financial fair play regulations in 2020 but they were acquitted by the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) the same year.
The Premier League also alleges that the club breached the League’s profitability and sustainability rules in seasons from 2015/16 to 2017.18 inclusive.
The last set of rules Manchester City allegedly breached are those that required them to cooperate with and assist the Premier League with its investigations. It is understood that the club have not been so forthcoming in these investigations since December 2018.
Now that they have been charged, The Premier League had referred the offences to an independent commission under Premier League rule W.3.4, whose members will be appointed by the independent chair of the Premier League judicial panel, in accordance with Premier League rules W.19, W.20 and W.26, according to Sky Sports.
According to a statement from the Premier League published by Sky Sport in part, “The proceedings before the commission will, in accordance with Premier League rule W.82, be confidential and heard in private. Under Premier League rule W.82.2, the commission’s final award will be published on the Premier League’s website.”
