Manchester City claims innocence after Premier League gives guilty verdict for breaking financial rules

The charges against Manchester City are based on breaches that happened over a nine-season period. | Photo Credit: REUTERS

Premier League side Manchester City said that it is innocent of the accusations made by the league after it announced that the club had been found guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules.

The league, in a statement on Tuesday, said that an independent commission has found the club guilty of breaking the financial rules and the “majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the League’s investigation.”

“Manchester City FC is both disappointed and surprised by the opinion of the Premier League Commission, which has been published today,” the club said.

“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 appropriate regulatory and legal forums,” it added.

The club noted that it will pursue appeal avenues on the basis that the “opinion contains clear material errors of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe.”

“The Club has diligently respected due process for eight years on the basis that the Premier League Board and Executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from partisan influence,” it added.