City accused of over 100 irregularities

The Premier League has accused Manchester City of breaking its financial rules on more than 100 occasions between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons following a four-year investigation, referring the reigning champions to an independent commission.

The six-times Premier League champions have been accused of failing to give "a true and fair view of the club's financial position", of failing to "include full details" of player and manager remuneration, of failing to comply with rules regarding financial fair play and failing to co-operate in a Premier League investigation that has concluded after more than four years.

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If proven, these would be the greatest offences committed by a club in the history of the competition.

The independent commission could recommend that City be expelled from competition by resigning them to relegation. A lesser infraction may simply lead to a fine or points being docked.

This is not the first time that the team have found itself in hot water for such issues. In February 2020, City were banned from the Champions League by UEFA after being found to have broken financial rules and misled the European governing body, only for the ban to be overturned on appeal by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

On the central finding that City's Abu Dhabi ownership had disguised its own funding as independent sponsorship by the state's commercial companies, Cas found: "Most of the alleged breaches were either not established or time-barred."

'Time-barred' was the crucial phrase. It basically means that UEFA have a five-year window to penalise clubs for Financial Fair Play infringements. However, the Premier League does not have include any such clause regarding time.

However, under Premier League rules, clubs cannot appeal to the CAS or FA. If they are found guilty, they will have to go for the drawn-out process of arbitration with another independent panel.

Last season, City won their sixth Premier League title since they were purchased by the Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008. They also won the Premier League title in the 2011-12, 2013-14, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2020-21 seasons. Since the takeover, Manchester City have spent over two billion euros on new players.

In January 2023, City topped the Deloitte money league -- a list of the world's richest clubs by revenue --for second year in a row ahead of Real Madrid. After the allegations came out, Jamie Carragher tweeted sarcastically: "This can't be right. Man City bring in more commercial revenue than Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Man Utd and Liverpool."