The Football Association (FA) has responded to Manchester City's guilty verdict regarding financial rule breaches occurring between 2009 and 2018. The FA highlighted that the ruling by an independent commission undermines the integrity of the game as a whole.
On Friday, the FA issued an official statement:
We are carefully reviewing the decision and its implications, and we will take appropriate action as necessary. Given that the legal proceedings between the Premier League and Manchester City are still ongoing, we will not be making any further comments at this stage, but we will continue to closely monitor developments.
Manchester City continues to deny any wrongdoing. The club was due to submit an appeal by Friday. According to BBC Sport, the Mancunians will base their defence on the premise that the key sponsorship deals were funded by the Abu Dhabi government rather than the club's owners.
The independent commission concluded that City had entered into fictitious contracts to conceal secret funding amounting to over £830 million. The Premier League has confirmed that the breaches were systematic over nearly a decade. The club's fate now hinges on the legal actions that follow.
