Official statement: Premier League finds Manchester City guilty of 115 financial charges

An official statement released by the Premier League today confirmed the unprecedented ruling against Manchester City. The League announced: "An independent Commission has found Manchester City FC guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period, and the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the League’s investigation." The detailed findings exposed an alleged disguised funding scheme.

The statement continued: "The independent Commission found that Manchester City arranged ‘sham’ commercial deals with a number of its sponsors during the period, which were part of a disguised funding scheme, whereby those companies were only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees. The remainder was funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club."

The governing body clarified the massive scale of the financial irregularities, which exceeded £900 million. The statement noted: "The purpose of these schemes was found to have been to artificially inflate the club’s revenues, and reduce its costs, by more than £900 million during the affected period, to appear to comply with financial rules. The consequence of this, as the Commission found, was that the club filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators. The Commission concluded that ‘by its conduct the club clearly intended to circumvent the PL Rules‘."

Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters commented on the severity of the situation, stating: "The core decision establishes the facts of what happened at Manchester City during this period. It details how the club systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade."

Masters added: "This disciplinary case, and this decision, are the most significant in Premier League history." Furthermore, the commission revealed that during the four-year investigation, the club "committed multiple breaches of its duties of co-operation and utmost good faith towards the League," concluding that Manchester City had "made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the PL investigation."

Manchester City have fiercely rejected the commission's findings and are prepared to challenge the ruling. In their own release, the club responded: "Manchester City FC is both disappointed and surprised by the opinion of the Premier League Commission, that has been published today. The Club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions, relating to this case. The Club will therefore be relentless, and where necessary proactive, in any and all appropriate regulatory and legal forums."

Asserting their intent to fight the decision, the club added: "The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements uncompleted. Manchester City FC will now pursue the appeal avenues open to it, on the basis that the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe."

Following the commission's guilty verdict, the issue of sanctions will be addressed separately in a further private hearing. Manchester City face potential punishments ranging from substantial fines and points deductions to automatic relegation. As the club have until October 2 to officially lodge an appeal, this legal battle is expected to dominate English football for the foreseeable future.