Manchester City face severe sanctions after being found guilty of serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period.

Abu Dhabi-backed City were found to have arranged “sham” contracts with several commercial partners to artificially inflate the club’s revenues and reduce costs by more than 900 million ($1.2 billion) between 2009 and 2018.

In doing so, they concealed the true state of their finances and avoided breaches of Premier League and UEFA spending limits as a result.

An independent commission also found the club guilty on the majority of charges in relation to their failure to co-operate with the league’s investigation.

No sanction has yet been imposed, and City said they will appeal against the decision.

But the ruling will send shockwaves through English football, with City’s place in the Premier League now at risk and questions over whether titles could be stripped.

“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,” Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said in a statement on Tuesday.

“This disciplinary case, and this decision, are the most significant in Premier League history.

“Now we have the commission’s decision, we are committed to moving swiftly through the remainder of the process, to provide certainty for the league, our clubs and fans.”

The commission found City arranged commercial deals whereby companies were only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.

The remainder was funded by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan’s Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development (ADUG), which owned the club.

Further arrangements, funded by ADUG, enabled the club to record lower operating expenses than they actually incurred.

As a result, City failed to accurately report income and expenditure for the purposes of the Premier League and UEFA’s financial sustainability rules.

The scheme was found to have inflated revenue by more than 830 million, while income from image rights was overstated by almost 74 million, with liabilities for staff contracts under-stated by nearly 17 million.

The commission found they would have breached spending limits “by a very substantial amount” if City had reported accurately.

City set to appeal

In addition, City were found to have “made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the Premier League” during a four-year investigation.

The commission found that evidence given by several important factual witnesses on behalf of City was “false in a number of key respects”.

It added that “certain of those factual witnesses had given evidence at the hearing that they knew to be untrue and so had been dishonest”.

“It’s incredibly serious, the Premier League report is incredibly stark,” said the British government’s culture, media and sport secretary Lisa Nandy.

Since a 2008 takeover from Sheikh Mansour, vice-president and deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, City have become the Premier League’s dominant force.

They have won eight Premier League titles, four FA Cups and seven League Cups over the past 15 years and also won the Champions League for the first time in 2023.

But that same year they were hit by the Premier League with over 100 charges following an investigation into alleged breaches of rules.

The hearing by an independent commission started in September 2024 and concluded three months later.

City expressed “surprise” at the decision and vowed to continue fighting to clear their name.

“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,” the club said in a statement.

According to Premier League rules, the sanction can vary from a points deduction, a fine or even expulsion from the division.

Everton and Nottingham Forest were handed points deductions in the 2023/24 season for single breaches of financial sustainability rules.

On that basis, City would face likely relegation if the same penalty is applied for each of the over 100 charges.

“If the appeal fails, Manchester City cannot stay in the league; they have to suffer. And I say that as a supporter and a fan,” said the club’s former chairman David Bernstein.