Manchester City has been referred to an independent commission for more than a hundred alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules, England’s top soccer league said on Monday.
The infractions extend from the 2009-10 season to the 2017-18 campaign, the Premier League added. City was acquired in 2008 by City Football Group, a group based in Abu Dhabi.
If the charges are proven, the squad could face various penalties, including a points deduction or expulsion from the Premier League.
The club is alleged to have violated rules relating to the provision of accurate financial information, “in particular with respect to its revenues (including sponsorship revenue), its related parties and its operating costs,” the tournament said.
The charges stem from a Premier League investigation into City’s financial dealings that began four years ago, months after the publication of a series of “Football Leaks” documents obtained by German publication Der Spiegel and reviewed by Reuters.
City were subsequently expelled from the Champions League by UEFA for two years, but successfully appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which overturned the ban in 2020. The club was fined 30 million euros ($32.28 million) by UEFA, which CAS reduced to 10 million euros.
The Premier League alleges that City did not fully disclose managerial remuneration in each of the seasons from 2009-10 to 2012-13, when Roberto Mancini was the manager.
The squad is also accused of failing to comply with Premier League rules requiring clubs to follow UEFA’s financial fair play (FFP) rules from the 2013-14 to 2017-18 seasons and failing to follow local rules on profits and sustainability from 2015-16 to 2017-18.
FFP regulations are designed to prevent clubs from incurring large losses by spending on players. They also ensure that sponsorship deals are based on their real market value and are genuine business deals, and not ways for owners to inject money into a club to circumvent the rules.
It is also alleged that City failed to cooperate with or assist the Premier League in its investigations from December 2018 to date.
“The members of the commission will be appointed by the independent chairman of the Premier League judicial panel,” the league tournament said in a statement. “The procedure before the commission will be … confidential and will be heard in private,” he added. “The Premier League will not comment further on this matter until further notice.”
City did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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