Man City guilty of 'sham' contracts and misleading accounts

Manchester City arranged "sham contracts" with a number of its commercial partners as part of a scheme to disguise secret funding of more than £830m, the Premier League says.

The League confirmed that City have been found guilty of all charges related to breaches of Premier League financial rules between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons.

An independent commission found that, during that time period, the club arranged the "sham contracts" as well as "relying on sham agreements to artificially inflate the club's revenues and reduce its costs".

The club continues to deny any wrongdoing.

News broke last week that City had been found guilty of breaking the majority of the 115 financial rules they were accused of breaching, but on Tuesday the Premier League published a redacted version of the commission's report.

The commission's report said the charges "concerned well over 100 alleged individual breaches of Premier League Rules across four broad charge categories".

It also found the club guilty of all charges except one relating to non-cooperation with the Premier League investigation.

The sham commercial deals were described as being part of a "disguised funding scheme" to the scale of £830.69m.

"The relevant sponsorship agreements were found to be shams, or at minimum did not reflect their economic substance," the commission said.

It also describes "deliberate or reckless conduct intended to circumvent the Premier League rules" and that the "sham" scheme devised by City allowed the club "to avoid recording what would otherwise have been the largest single-season loss in Premier League history in 2009-10".

Richard Masters, chief executive of the Premier League, said: "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.

"It also vindicates the Premier League's decision to pursue this case against Manchester City. While the process to date has been both long and difficult, the League has remained determined that the facts be established independently.

"It is a key responsibility of the Premier League to ensure that the Rules, approved by the clubs themselves, are upheld to protect the integrity of the competition. It is paramount that the League remains competitive and fair for all clubs and for the fans. We take that role extremely seriously."

The Premier League also said that City's sanction "will be addressed separately in a further hearing with the independent commission".

The League's rules state that the hearing must remain private and confidential, and that the club has the right to appeal the commission's findings. City have until Friday 2 October to submit their appeal.

Lisa Nandy MP, the Culture, Media & Sport secretary, told the BBC: "It's incredibly serious, the Premier League report is incredibly stark.

"This is causing a lot of concern for Man City fans and all fans of Premier League football."