The Premier League's legal action against Manchester City has been underway for more than three years. Throughout this period, the team has substantially bolstered its trophy cabinet with two Premier League titles, two FA Cups, a League Cup, a Champions League trophy, a UEFA Super Cup, and a Community Shield.
On September 25, 2026, news broke of a verdict from an independent tribunal: the club was found guilty on 114 out of 115 charges. Below are key details and a timeline of this high-profile case.
Timeline of the investigation and nature of the allegations
The first hints of alleged financial misconduct emerged in 2018 from the German magazine Der Spiegel. Their reports were based on a trove of internal emails, accessed by a Portuguese hacker, Rui Pinto, later jailed for his actions. These revelations marked the beginning of an official investigation.
In February 2020, UEFA found the club guilty of breaching Financial Fair Play regulations, handing them a two-year ban from European competition and a fine of €30 million. However, five months later, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned the ban and reduced the fine to €10 million. CAS judges acknowledged that the club displayed a disregard for UEFA's investigatory procedures but deemed many allegations either unproven or too old to pursue.
Then, in early February 2023, the Premier League officially charged Manchester City with systematic financial breaches. This investigation traced back to 2019 and encompassed a series of financial misreportings stretching across every season from 2009/10 to 2017/18, coinciding with the arrival of Arab investors in autumn 2008.
The Guardian provided a breakdown of the 115 charges:
- 54 charges of failing to provide accurate and truthful financial information.
- 14 charges relating to concealing the true details of player and management salaries.
- 5 charges of breaching UEFA regulations, including aspects of Financial Fair Play.
- 7 charges of violating financial sustainability and profitability rules set by the Premier League.
- 35 charges of refusing to cooperate with the league’s investigative bodies.
Hearings on the matter wrapped up in December 2024, yet the verdict remained undisclosed for a considerable time. It was only on September 26, 2026, that The Athletic reported the guilty decision.
The club responded swiftly to the insider information:
The Premier League's process is still ongoing, with a significant portion remaining unresolved and being conducted in strict confidentiality. Manchester City's position has remained unchanged since February 2023, as the club has consistently followed established procedures over the eight years, hopeful that the league's hierarchy will act as an independent and impartial regulator.
Among specific examples, the Italian paper La Gazzetta dello Sport highlighted questionable payments to former manager Roberto Mancini. While officially his salary was set at €1.69 million per year, he reportedly received an additional €2.03 million from Emirati club Al-Jazira, also owned by Sheikh Mansour, for fictitious consultancy services.
Potential sanctions: from point deductions to a 'calciopoli' scenario
The tournament regulations don't lay out a fixed punishment scheme for such transgressions. Premier League clubs initially hesitated to set clear boundaries for penalties, fearing that rule-breakers might deliberately take risks, knowing the cost of their infractions.
If the commission confirms the guilty verdict, the club could face a broad range of repercussions:
- Heavy financial penalties.
- Substantial point deductions: in English football history, clubs like Luton (-30 points in 2008/09), Derby County (-21 points in 2021/22), and Everton (-8 points in 2023/24) faced such sanctions.
- Total expulsion from the Premier League.
- Revocation of championship titles: if trophies are stripped, the Premier League might mirror the precedent set during Italy's Calciopoli scandal in the 2004/05 season, when Juventus was stripped of its titles and no new winner was declared.
