The Premier League has published the independent commission's ruling in its case against Manchester City, and one of its sections relates to the arrangements made since the initial leaks concerning the contract of the team's former manager Roberto Mancini.
Three separate mechanisms kept the obligations off the club's books, the document identifies, according to what was reported by Football Italia.
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The first part, dealt with under charge 1(b), relates to a coach and not a player. The commission found the club had breached Premier League rules P.7 and P.8, which govern what must appear in the head coach's employment contract.
The investigations found the following:
"A significant part of the sums payable by the club was not recorded in the coach's employment contract, but rather in a consultancy agreement between third parties. The money paid for that, totalling £8.866 million, came from the Abu Dhabi group that owns City."
Those underlying agreements were "sham", the commission concluded, and the club understated its expenses by this amount. City's management "clearly intended to circumvent the Premier League's rules".
Mancini managed Manchester City from December 2009 to May 2013. This case contains no findings against Mancini himself.
The commission observed "two important points: the commission's findings are against the club, not the individual, and Mancini was not a party, and nothing in the published document contains any finding against him personally".
It continued: "The names are redacted throughout the document." Mancini said last Sunday: "I do not believe in convicting Manchester City, quite the opposite."
The ruling states: "We find the charges set out above to be proven to the required standard."