The Premier League issued an official statement shortly ago regarding the charges against Manchester City for breaching Premier League rules, in 114 cases investigated, spanning nine seasons from 2009-10 to 2017-18.
An independent commission found Manchester City guilty of all charges related to breaches of the Premier League's financial regulations over nine seasons, and most of the charges related to its failure to cooperate with the Premier League investigation.
The statement clarifies that, according to the independent commission's investigations, it was found that during the period between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons, Manchester City entered into sham contracts aimed at concealing the true agreement between the parties with a number of its commercial partners, in addition to relying on other sham agreements to artificially inflate the club's revenues and reduce its costs.
Manchester City also provided misleading financial data and concealed the club's true financial position from auditors and football governing bodies, and violated spending limits imposed by both the Premier League and UEFA.
During the Premier League investigation, Manchester City committed multiple breaches of its duties to cooperate and act in good faith towards the League, and three of the four alleged breaches were proven.
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The independent commission concluded that Manchester City engaged in sham commercial deals with a number of its sponsors during the mentioned period, as part of a funding scheme, where those companies were only required to pay a portion of the sponsorship fees.
Other commercial deals were funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development Limited (ADUG), the club's owner, and as part of this scheme, other sham arrangements were made, funded by ADUG.
This was done to enable Manchester City to record lower expenses than its actual ones, in addition to a fictitious agreement with Fordham University, which purchased the image rights of the club's players, funded by the Abu Dhabi group.
The investigation states that the purpose of these schemes was to artificially inflate the club's revenues and reduce its costs by more than £900 million during the relevant period, in order to demonstrate compliance with financial rules.
Manchester City submitted misleading accounts and concealed the true financial situation from its auditors and football governing bodies, and the commission indicates that the club's behavior was clearly intended to circumvent the Premier League's rules.
Manchester City did not provide accurate reports on its revenues and expenditures for the purposes of the Premier League's Profitability and Sustainability Rules, and UEFA's Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play rules.
The commission concluded that if all agreements had been accurately reported in the club's accounts, the club would have breached the spending limits set by both the League and UEFA by a very large amount.
In addition, during the four-year investigation conducted by the Premier League, the club committed repeated breaches of its duties to cooperate and act in good faith towards the League.