In February of 2023, when the Premier League announced that is was charging Manchester City with multiple breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules, City released a statement which said: “Manchester City FC is surprised by the issuing of these alleged breaches of the Premier League Rules, particularly given the extensive engagement and vast amount of detailed materials that the EPL has been provided with.”
“The Club welcomes the review of this matter by an independent Commission, to impartially consider the comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position.”
“As such we look forward to this matter being put to rest once and for all.”
Today, the Premier League released the independent commission’s findings found that Manchester City were guilty of nearly all of the charges levelled against them. City’s ‘irrefutable evidence’ was in fact, refuted. From here, Manchester City’s resolve is about to be tested. All indications are that City will not bow down to the Premier League’s verdict.
Manchester City remain steadfast in their belief that they are innocent of all charges levelled against them.
The reaction of Manchester City to today’s verdict was fierce. Manchester City’s statement and a video that City CEO Ferran Soriano sent to City staff can be viewed below.
“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.”
“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.””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.”
“The Club is obviously restricted in what it can say further until all future proceedings are complete.”
A message sent to #ManCity staff by CEO, Ferran Soriano. pic.twitter.com/hM42O8IoGn
— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) September 29, 2026
Based on the Premier League’s verdict and Manchester City’s response, an even bigger storm is about to erupt.
The findings that the Premier League released today on the 115 case and Manchester City’s response couldn’t be any more fierce. As relayed by the Sun, the independent commission found that Manchester City witnesses were wilfully lying and dishonest while giving evidence. That is a sizable accusation in itself on top of the Commissions’ findings. Manchester City’s response was just as withering. Neither party is backing down in this case. From here out, one outcome is certain. A bigger storm than what is playing out currently is about to erupt.
Manchester City believes that they have ‘irrefutable evidence’ to back their position. They have done so from day one of the saga. Their irrefutable evidence didn’t satisfy the Premier League’s independent commission. In fact, the independent commission dismissed it entirely. They labelled it a ‘sham’ and dismissed Manchester City’s witnesses. That is as strong a rebuttal to the ‘irrefutable evidence’ as can be found. There is no other way to see it. It is there in black and white on the Premier League’s official website.
Manchester City believes the Premier League Commissions ‘opinion’ contains ‘clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe’. That is just as damning an assessment. An even bigger battle is set to ensure. City will lodge an appeal and will ‘be relentless, and where necessary proactive, in any and all appropriate regulatory and legal forums.’ Reading both parties statements, the gloves are well and truly now off.
Final thoughts.
Manchester City’s ‘irrefutable evidence’ was refuted by the Premier League Commission in emphatic fashion. From here, the gloves are off and City will appeal the findings of the Premier League. The first test of Manchester City’s ‘irrefutable evidence’ saw it dismissed and disregarded. It won’t be the last test of it. There is more to come in the battle between Manchester City and the Premier League. That is certain and neither party is going to back down. Today has made that a certainty. In fact, this saga will now get a whole lot messier now that the gloves are off.
In my opinion, football is now on the precipice.
Unrelated to today’s findings and the ongoing storm that will erupt from here, I feel the need to write my own thoughts. I am not an expert on football finances, I never will be. I’m a Manchester City fan with undying loyalty to my club that will endure through this entire saga, wherever, and whenever it ends.
It must be said, that the legal battles that City have been involved in have become tiresome. If Manchester City lose their appeal, and cannot clear their name, they deserve to be punished, and severely. That is not up for debate. However, if City do clear their name, they will need to be compensated for the damage caused to the club’s reputation. That also isn’t up for debate.
But at some point along the way, football has lost its way. Court room battles have become common place. Instead of debating the game and what happens on the pitch. Football finances and terms such as FFP, PSR and the like have become as hotly debated as what happens when two teams face off for 90 minutes.
For as long as football has existed there have been big clubs, small clubs, teams with better players, clubs with more money, better facilities etc. Football has never been an even contest off the pitch. The modern day Premier League is no exception. In fact, that will never change. There is no good to come from the battle between Manchester City and the Premier League. None at all. It is a story that has become tiresome and will likely drag on for years to come.
If Manchester City lose their appeal, and their ‘irrefutable evidence’ isn’t exactly that, the club deserves to have the book thrown at them. As does the Premier League if City’s ‘irrefutable evidence’ is exactly that. But this battle highlights that football is disappearing up its own backside. There are no winners here, and likely never will be.
For many fans the certainty they have had in the clubs case is based on the initial outcry when it was acquired by ADUG, the subsequent action by UEFA and when that failed the Premier Leagues attempts.
Throughout that whole series of challenges the clubs executives have been insistent they have irrefutable evidence.
Now we are being drip fed the evidence through the media who are only more than happy to dig the knife as deep as they can.
What I am struggling to understand is if the evidence is truly irrefutable then given the extremely expensive legal advisors City have appointed why that evidence hasn’t been fully tested to ensure that it actually is irrefutable.
Secondly surely in such a drawn out process why the Commissions assumptions/challenges/conclusions are not aired in the process and then either found to have demonstrated that City’s evidence is not irrefutable or is irrefutable. Surely that is either a failure of the Commission doing their job or City’s legal team ensuring the evidence is water tight. If it doesn’t address the Commissions concerns what have they all been doing for so long?
Fans confidence in the clubs case is on the insistence from the Executive that it’s evidence is irrefutable. If the leaal advisers haven’t ensured that’s the case somebody is not earning those massive charges. If it is irrefutable why weren’t issues addressed when they were raised during the massively drawn out process?
Surely if it’s the process that’s at fault why was it ever allowed to get this far?
Indeed Paul it is the process. The past Tory government wanted to bring in an independent regulator and this whole investigation that seem to be going nowhere got rushed through by the PL to jump the gun (as the Sun put it at the time).THEN knowing how City had turned to the CAS to win their case against UEFA they barred them from acting!.
The irony is: the breach of FFP rules which were deemed unsafe and have since been ditched. It is a bit like prosecuting for an act of witchcraft 100 years ago.
The best point you make is about the dismissal of a couple of dozen witnesses as liars. You presumably would work that out immediatly at the time so why did this take 2 years? It looks like they marked City’s card from the outset then buggered off to the Golf Course!
I wish I could provide an answer to everyone’s questions as we’re all in the same boat. There are a plethora of unanswered questions right now, hopefully the answers arrive sooner rather than later. I feel that won’t be the case as mentioned by Jasper, there are extremely powerful people, companies and entities involved so this story will take years to finally reach it’s conclusion.
For me, I take a some comfort in Soriano’s statement. We have been here before and emerged ultimately triumphant. Whatever comes next, hopefully that occurs here.
I didn’t expect this verdict to arrive and be so damning. I’ve always believed the club’s stance and still do. It was jarring to read. The fact that witnesses have been accused of being dishonest, plus more I never expected to see. But here we are.
Now it is on to the next step of this battle. Hopefully we emerge successful. The club’s reputation is in tatters, and likely cannot be salvaged. That may well be the ultimate goal of it all, who knows.
But all I’ll do is continue to support Manchester City, whatever comes next both on the pitch and off it. You can’t be there for the sweets, if you aren’t there for the sours to borrow an old saying. Hopefully, in time, the club is ultimately cleared like in 2020. It just may take time, with twists,turns and bumps in the road to get there.
Sponsors, auditors, witnesses, club staff, have all been accused as being untruthful. I do hope that the sponsors concerned take action as do the auditors.
It is not just the Club Staff and Auditors but they are accusing The Crown Prince of the UAE and his brother Sheikh Mansur of being liars and fraudsters. As the UAE are probably our only allies in the middle east and spend billions in trade with the UK this could get very messy indeed.
Adam.I don’t know if this rumour I heard a year ago that the PL had pressed the “Nuclear button” and insisted the Panel had to find all financial breach charges 100% or nothing (which they eventually did). Now based upon the statement by the CEO that the whole case rested on ONE presumption which was financial doping by the Owners.
This does seem to back up the Nuclear rumour. If the Panel were to find just one charge to be unfounded then the rest had to fall like a pack of dominoes! I always felt as indeed do many lawyers that the Nuclear button made it a no win situation and that the best legal team on the pitch had to strike a few significant blows and it did not, a bit like Erling Haaland failing to score against 7 men of Fylde FC.
I’ve heard that rumour and many others like many of us have. A lot of them, have proven to be unfounded by the Premier League’s verdict and rulings.
However, this isn’t over, barring a massive u-turn from us, which I am not expecting, it will get uglier, a lot uglier.
My point of view is if we have done nothing wrong, as Khaldoon, Soriano and the club have claimed for so long, we should ultimately be cleared. As long as that evidence is irrefutable. That’s all we can pin our hopes on, and until that hope is proven or evaporated that is where I stand.
It’s going to be a long fight from here, no doubt about it. Where it lands who knows. It’s just a s@/t situation really. There is no other way to put it.
Adam I can go back to 1999 when we were 2 down to Gillingham and I started to leave but ran back after Horlock scored and got to see Dickov equalize and win the penalty shoot out (for once I actually shed a tear!). So I always have vowed never to walk out on the Blues and the only one to stop me will be an undertaker!
An awful lot of people have been accused of not having told the truth. Yet not shred of evidence of this has emerged in the last 8 years. You would expect at least something to appear in public from whistle-blowers, but nothing.
Regarding the nuclear option, I seem to remember a while back when somebody was being re-elected to the PL board, Liverpool said they would not vote for her unless City were found guilty.
FFP/PSR did not exist before 2008, when City were taken over by ADUG, and also PSG by Qatar. That made a group of clubs/owners panic and hey presto FFP arrived. in the UK and Europe. It has nothing to do with fair play, it just enables the haves to stay the haves. A similar thing happened when Newcastle were take over, the common denominator is they are all Arabs, while most of the rest of the PL have American owners. I detect a bit of racism here.
Not just racism. Americans are as popular in the Arab world as a turd in a swimming pool.
In fact thanks to Donald Duck the US President it is getting worse. I wonder if City were owned by Americans or Israilis would this have happened?
Adam may I add to your final thoughts about the game on the precipice. This whole filthy mess began when the PL was formed. It was ALWAYS designed to benefit Manchester United and their Cohorts so they could keep the majority of their earnings and the “Old Money” ruled. It morphed into a “sham” democracy where basically Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool and Utd control the rest. A couple of newcomers arrived firstly Chelsea and then City and both have been relentlessly pursued. Now I am not naive enough to think there has not been some dodgy accountancy but for a Corruptly run PL to call “the pot black” is like Reg calling Ronnie Kray a crook.
Summary? IT WAS ALL ROTTEN FROM THE START! Greg Dyke, Martin Edwards and Rupert Murdoch do I need to say more?
Actually Jasper a lot of fans I know of different clubs say it’s not City to blame but Sky TV, and the red cartel.
Forgot to add, sky were running the same programme about City on 3 of their channels this teatime !!!!
Ah John I get it. I forgot that Rupert Murdoch controlled SKY who in turn benefitted from the PL!
It is not often that I would quote Margaret Thatcher but when she said: “the day we have guilt by accusation and trial by media then justice dies” I was forced to agree.
Jasper. Murdoch never controlled BSkyB even though that was his intention. Their bid to do that was withdrawn after the phone hacking scandal broke.
Sorry to keep harping on but it is worth listening to the interview with Andy Burnham and Robert Peston on ITV News.
Peston tries to browbeat the PM about Abu Dhabi money being filtered in illegally. The PM would not be drawn referencing his fight for Everton and the PL “process”. He goes on to urge caution as the process has a long way to travel. He refused to condemn anyone.
The process being “trust us we’re a totally unbiased anonymous commission”.
I’d love to hear the media’s view on the truly massive investment City have made on the Etihad and surrounding area as opposed to the previous government all but gift wrapping at tax payers expense the Olympic Stadium to the Tory Peer Karen Brady.
I offer that example not to turn this into a political argument but simply to illustrate how the seriously compromised media and pundits cherry pick their outrage.
Some further thoughts.
Let’s not forget in all of this that this whole process started with UEFA and the Premier League being very unhappy that a club outside the big six should be allowed to use their owners resources to challenge the elite. In other words invest.
Secondly it would appear that it’s perfectly acceptable for the supposed independent commission to use incendiary language ( eg sham lies etc ) to describe their opinions because not allowed City to respond to their claims renders the “findings” as merely opinions not fully supported by unchallenged facts.
Thirdly with Masters raising his head above the parapet once more it would appear that he’s being allowed to mark his own homework in telling everyone what conclusions can be drawn from these anonymous experts who have yet to provide substantiated details for their opinions.
Strange also how this process conveniently got briefed unofficially to the press to flood the zone with “facts” before eventually confirming it’s opinions without substantiating any of those opinions with facts.
The media have beautifully played their parts as useful idiots in this revealing.
Instead of simply saying “trust us we’re the independent commission” let’s see what their opinions are really based on. In other words facts not what fits Masters required answers
Incendiary language as you say is a bit of clue. I can tell you that no Magistrate would use that kind of terminology, maybe “I am not totally satisfied with the witness accounts”. If one use the term “Liar” without proof the defendant’s lawyer would be appeal on the grounds of fairness and independence. Such language as well as the leak to the press is further indication of the type of people on this Panel who are being allowed to behave in a manner which would not be permissable in either Crown or Magistrates Courts.
Yes Paul the old press motto “never let facts get in the way of a good story”. They come out with a verdict but no one knows where there was “Proof”, They libel people without saying why they are liars. Masters was quizzed where the “leak” came from and his reply “its confidential!”
However there does look to be, as I already forecast, political reprecussions as the PM was asked how concerned would he be if the Abu Dhabi Group sold up and took all their funding out of the UK? His reply was “very concerned”
If anyone still believes that Masters is totally unbiased and acts in the best interests of all Premier League clubs then I’ve got a nice bridge located in Central London you might like to buy.
There are all these accusations floating around now with talk of asterisks and removing titles but you’ve got to admit it that the only way these supposed Premier League clubs can beat City is off the field. That earns a massive asterisk from me for their pathetic efforts being heavily dependent on a massive assist from a hacker.
Ironic that the 4 Controlling Clubs of the PL were the ones who conspired to create the European Super League, Both City and Chelsea reluctantly joined in but were first to ditch the idea and the 4 have not forgiven both of them,
Funny how the British public who claim to believe in a fair trial (for themselves) but become a lynch mob when it suits.
I forecast this will get politically messy and now Etihad Airways are considering legal action for deformation. I don’t think they will be the only ones. This is really a case where you are actually accusing multiple private individuals, some who have left, of FRAUD. The PL are skating on thin ice but just like the partisan football fans they just can’t see it.
The Etihad one is interesting. This will be open court, where the PL will have to supply their evidence. Etihad were considering a partial float on the Stock Market up to a quarter or third of the airline, potentially £100ms. Surely Etihad will claim damages for this loss, also divulging what evidence they have against City.
The evidence is hacked emails which is hearsay but more important is PROOF which I doubt they actually have any which is why they deny the appeal to go to CAS.
When asked if he would be concerned if the UAE Government in Abu Dhabi pulled out of the UK Andy Burnham said “Yes”. Next thing the Lynch Mob began to bleat he was supporting an already guilty City. Those idiots should try telling people who would lose their jobs because of “Football”.
Andy Burnham dares to question how unfairly he thought Everton were treated by the Cartel League and not only that but hes now also pointed out how much has been achieved through City owners and the transformation of Manchester.
He really crossed a line there because we all know now that all the money invested really wasn’t real money and the amazing transformation of a badly deprived area was clearly achieved with lies and sham imaginary projects.
We’re all expected to believe according to the disciples of Masters and the cartel cult that ADUG have contributed absolutely nothing. It’s all a myth. Dont believe your own eyes and what’s happened isn’t worthy of any credit because the cartel has told us that what we can see with our very own eyes is an illusion.
As you gaze upon the wonders of the water theme park across Greater Manchester with the massive investment that has taken place removing the little people working at the club and telling genuine supporters their season tickets would be removed because they dared to refuse to go along to a laughingly called Champions League game against a team no one has ever heard of.
That’s the sort of club Masters seems to want to promote and encourage. Why because that’s what they insist is real not sham investment. The kind of investment that identified the need for a new stadium and expects the tax payer to pay for it for them.
Where City’s owners have led the cartel clubs and their bleating sheep followers are being forced to follow and it’s that which they hate the most because City’s owners show them what real investment is not simply ripping their fans off as a gloried ATM to be milked. That’s Masters truth and who he represents.
The attitude of the PL zombies reflects the UK and the fact that some wish to live in the past whilst others like Us look to the future and why toe rags like Lord Jim of Monte Carlo wanted us to leave the EU which was as disasterous as the finances of UTD. Everything wrong with this country is reflected in their stale attitude.
Totally agree with you Jasper. Lord Gummidge of Farnworth chose to disappear to Monaco to avoid £4 billion in taxes closing one of his units in the UK and moving it into the EU because if the disaster he and his ilk created.
This is precisely the sort of club owner that Masters feels is vital to the Premier League. That’s what the Masters rules are there to ring fence and protect.
Spot on Paul and this is a salutary lesson on how the media now manipulate how people should think. The PM for example was asked if he would be concerned if the Abu Dhabi group left the UK and rightly said “yes”. Next thing he is being accused of siding with wrong doing and questioning his role whilst Mayor of Manchester!. I went to the best school in Manchester and had it impressed on Us to “Question Everything”.
The ignorant public are easily controlled and Putin does not need to invade us whilst we have gullible social media users.
I sometimes look at the Al Jazeera news channel which I often find to be a darn sight more impartial than our BBC.
They have said that City are about to lodge their appeal and to argue the case that it was the Government of Abu Dhabi who partly financed the Sponsorship deals and NOT the Owner, which they were not. Changes to the rules did not come after 2023 before the charges were made. Have a look in case I am wrong