Manchester City have been found guilty of all charges of serious breaches of Premier League financial regulations, the Premier League confirmed in a 1,545-word statement Tuesday.
Richard Masters, the Premier League CEO, said that the findings show that City “systematically broke Premier League rules for nearly a decade.”
City face huge points deductions and fines, with the Premier League holding the ability to issue an ultimate sanction of expulsion from the league.
City, who denied all charges, have until Friday to exercise their right to an appeal.
In its verdict, the independent panel found that City arranged “sham” contracts with commercial partners to artificially inflate their commercial earnings, filed “misstated” accounts to conceal the true nature of their finances and “significantly” breached Premier League and UEFA spending limits.
In its statement, the Premier League said City used “disguised funding schemes” to deceive and mislead the league.
The statement said: “The purpose of these schemes was found to have been to artificially inflate the club’s revenues, and reduce its costs, by more than £900 million during the affected period, to appear to comply with financial rules.
“The consequence of this, as the Commission found, was that the club filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators. The Commission concluded that ‘by its conduct the club clearly intended to circumvent the PL Rules.'”–ESPN
