Manchester City accused of unprecedented breach of financial rules
The football club "Manchester City", one of the leaders of the English Premier League, has been found guilty of systematically violating financial rules. Now, "City" faces serious punishment ranging from millions in fines to being stripped of titles and expelled from the League.
"Manchester City" accused of unprecedented violations of financial rules
Founded in 1880, "Manchester City" is one of the most decorated clubs in the English Premier League and has long been considered one of the richest teams. In 2008, the club was acquired by the Abu Dhabi United Group (UAE) investment group, led by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Since then, "Manchester City" has won the Premier League eight times, the FA Cup four times, the League Cup seven times, and the UEFA Champions League once.
For the past 10 years, the club was managed by Spaniard Josep Guardiola. He ranked first on the list of the highest-paid EPL managers in the 2025/26 season with a monthly salary of 1.92 million euros. At the end of the 2025/26 season, Guardiola left the club, and his former assistant, Italian Enzo Maresca, was appointed head coach. According to Transfermarkt, in the latest transfer window of summer 2026, "Manchester City" spent 526.2 million euros on purchasing new players, breaking "Liverpool's" record set in 2025 (483 million euros).
On September 29, the English Premier League's independent regulatory commission completed its investigation into "Manchester City" and announced its decision: the club was found guilty of systematically violating EPL financial rules over several seasons between 2009 and 2018.
The club was exposed for making more than 900 million pounds sterling (approximately 1.19 billion dollars) in fake payments to "create the appearance of compliance with financial rules." According to the commission's calculations, "City" overstated its revenues by 855.2 million pounds sterling and understated its expenses by 66.2 million pounds, which is considered a serious violation of the limits set by the EPL and UEFA.
As a result, "City" submitted inaccurate financial reports and concealed the true situation from its auditors and football regulators, specifically to bypass Premier League rules.
In addition, the commission concluded that the club "made concerted efforts to halt and disrupt the EPL investigation." Out of the final list of charges consisting of 115 counts, only one — regarding the refusal to cooperate with the investigation — was dismissed.