The Premier League on Monday accused its reigning champion Manchester City of years of breaching financial rules in its pursuit of trophies, allegations that could result in the most severe punishments in the league's history, including the possibility that City, one of the most dominant soccer teams in Europe over the past decade, could be expelled from England's top division.
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The Premier League’s list of charges, outlined in a press release peppered with legal jargon and dry references to specific rules and bylaws, was remarkable in its scale. Manchester City is accused of more than 100 breaches, including failing to provide accurate financial information “that gives a true and fair view of the financial situation of the club”; failing to disclose contractual payments to coaches and players; and failing to cooperate, as required, with Premier League investigators.
The charges have been referred to an independent commission and will be heard at a confidential hearing, the Premier League said. League officials declined to comment further on the plea or on the case against City. The team currently sits second in the league table. No date has been set for the hearing.
It is unclear what sanctions Manchester City will face if the league charges are upheld. Under Premier League rules, teams found to have breached its rules face commercial sanctions that could include reprimands and fines or sporting sanctions such as points deductions in the standings or even expulsion from the top division.
Manchester City responded to the charges with a statement whose language contradicted the league's claim that City had not cooperated in the investigation, now in its fifth year. The club said it was "surprised by the issuance of these alleged breaches" and said it had provided "a wealth of detailed materials."
City said it welcomed an independent review of what it called a “full body of irrefutable evidence” that it said supported the club’s position.
The scale of the alleged wrongdoing in the City case is unprecedented for England's premier league, which has grown to become one of the most popular domestic leagues in the world and one of Britain's most important cultural exports. City has been a fixture over the past decade, winning six championships since 2012, including four of the last five.
The charges against the club revealed on Monday date back to 2009, a year after the brother of Abu Dhabi's ruler bought Manchester City and began an accelerating era of spending and success.
Under their Gulf owner, Manchester City have been transformed into one of the most successful and biggest-spending teams in world football, a serial English champion and a regular contender for the world's best players and Europe's biggest trophies.
Those titles were secured by a brand of winning football that set points records and at times made the team, with perhaps the deepest and most talented roster in English football history, seem almost unbeatable against domestic opposition. In many seasons, it became routine to see City crush even their closest rivals.
But throughout that period, suspicions about Manchester City’s financial dealings overshadowed its successes on the pitch. The focus intensified in 2018, when a Portuguese computer hacker responsible for uncovering some of football’s darkest secrets obtained internal Manchester City documents and emails suggesting the club had been engaged in years of financial manipulation through deals with companies linked to its wealthy Gulf owners. Sponsorships were used to artificially inflate revenues on City’s balance sheet, the club’s critics argued, and allowed it to continue its relentless acquisition of playing, coaching and scouting talent.
