Manchester City: Guilty on All Counts. Inside the 'Sham' Deals That Fooled the Premier League

Of course, Manchester City will appeal. They always do. The verdict? It lays bare a deliberate plot to pump up commercial income and keep Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) out of sight while they funded the club.

Think 'Disguised Funding Scheme.' That's what the commission found. ADUG secretly bankrolled City's sponsorship deals. Officially, financial statements from 2009-10 to 2017-18 showed £949.94m in Abu Dhabi sponsorship cash. The ugly truth? Sponsors actually forked over just £119.25m. The other £830.69m? Straight from ADUG. Plain as day.

These weren't just inflated deals; they were 'sham' commercial agreements. Valued way, way over any fair market price. Take the 'Fordham Arrangement,' for instance. The commission called it 'little more than a front for ADUG.' City used Fordham as a middleman, then, in one single transaction, they magically overstated income by £24.5m and understated expenses by £49.4m. Clever, right? Or just crooked?

And that's not all. There were three remuneration agreements, almost £17m worth, completely scrubbed from the accounts. Guess who paid those? ADUG. When City tried to argue that sponsors needed financial support from the Abu Dhabi government, the commission didn't buy it. Not for a second. They called it 'concocted well after the event.' That's code for 'a blatant lie.'

This wasn't some quick look. The investigation was a marathon: 27 witnesses, 42 days in late 2024. Tens of thousands of documents pored over. The only charge they didn't fully pin on City? A non-cooperation rap. Even then, it wasn't exactly *disproven*. It just wasn't 'fully established.' Read into that what you will.