The English Premier League accuses Manchester City, which plays in the series, of more than a hundred violations of financial rules. The Premier League published about it announcement (you will switch to another service) on Monday.
The Premier League says it has been investigating Manchester City’s financial activities for four years. According to the series’ release, City has committed violations in 14 seasons.
The investigation started all the way from the 2009–2010 season. The Manchester club has won six English championships and finished second three times during the period covered by the investigation.
The expert services company Deloitte estimates at the beginning of the year in the annual turnover of football clubs in your report (you switch to another service) City as the world’s largest revenue collecting football club. However, City is now suspected of violations by which it has tried to make its financial situation look better than it is.
If City is found guilty of the violations under investigation, it will face not only financial sanctions but also sporting penalties. These include loss of points, as well as disqualification from the competition as one of the maximum penalties.
The investigation will now be transferred to an independent disciplinary committee, which will decide on possible punishments.
The Premier League says in a statement that Manchester City’s financial violations take place between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons. The Manchester club is also accused of deliberately resisting the investigation because, for example, it has not submitted documents related to its finances for the last five seasons (2018–2023).
According to the story in The Times magazine, the charges include, among others, the club’s ex-manager Roberto Mancini keeping salary information and players’ remuneration information.
The hacker revealed the shenanigans of the UAE owners
The English Premier League’s own investigation has already started in December 2018. At that time The German magazine Der Spiegel published (you go to another service) The hacker of Football Leaks and its founder Rui Pinto acquired documents.
The Football Leaks disclosure emails rocked the entire world football economy. As for City the documents told (you switch to another service) among other things, that the club exaggerated its sponsorship income, drew up secret fee agreements and approached minor footballers with contract offers against the rules.
It was tens of millions worth of hidden contracts and fees.
All the shady deals, such as the hidden fees received by manager Mancini, eventually led to the owner of the club, belonging to the ruling families of the United Arab Emirates, Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan i.e. to Sheikh Mansour’s companies.
Exaggerated sponsorship income targeted Etihad airline and Etisalat telecommunications company. The sponsorship millions brought in by these were deemed, according to the charges, to have come from Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group, through which he owns City.
On the other hand, Mancini’s salary information was blacked out for the entire time he was with the club (2009-2014), while he was paid fees with shadow contracts, according to the leaked documents. In addition, information on the remuneration of City’s representative team players has been lacking between 2010 and 2016.
Old sins, but not the same escape route
The European football association Uefa punished City for the aforementioned rule violations in February 2020. Uefa banned the club from its competitions (you switch to another service)for two years and fined it EUR 30 million, stating that the club had violated the rules of Financial Fair Play (FFP).
Later that year, the International Court of Appeal for Sport CAS partially overturned the verdict (you switch to another service) After City appealed his sentence there. CAS considered that “some of the judgments were out of date and some could not be proven true”.
This time, however, City will not be able to appeal to CAS against their possible convictions on the same charges. There is no similar statute of limitations for violations in the Premier League rules, which CAS relied on in its own decision.
Two years after the start of the Premier League’s investigation, an arbitration court in England ordered City to provide, as described by the Court of Appeal, “certain documents and information to the Premier League and to inquire about their third parties”.
In July 2021, an appeals court issued a decision that revealed the City had attempted to challenge both the arbitration order to release documents and information and its jurisdiction over the matter. However, the order was not changed.
What could be in store?
The investigation started by the Premier League was already publicly reported in 2019. However, according to the Premier League, it has taken an exceptionally long time because, according to them, City has tried to stop the investigation on purpose. This was also stated by the Court of Appeal in its 2021 decision.
Manchester City have said they are surprised by the allegations. The club claims to have willingly participated in the investigations and provided the necessary information to the Premier League.
According to the club, the charges are based on hacked emails that have been taken out of context. However, according to the English media, the club has acquired as its defense lawyers a high-class group led by a well-known lawyer, baron David Pannick.
The Premier League and City have tried to keep the investigation under wraps as much as possible. Both parties applied to the Supreme Court of England for a decision to keep the proceedings secret. Requests from City and the Premier League were rejected.
If Manchester City is found guilty of violations, the scale of possible punishments given to it is wide. According to The Times (You will be switched to another service) in sporting penalties, City may be sentenced to points loss, for example. As a maximum punishment, the club can even be sentenced to relegation from the Premier League.
City are currently in second place in the Premier League, five points behind league leaders Arsenal, who have played one game less.