--- title: "Manchester City Found Guilty on 114 of 115 Financial Charges as Club Vows to Fight" description: "An independent commission found ‘sham’ deals hid about £900 million in owner funding; expulsion is among the possible punishments" author: "rews desk" published: 2026-09-30T14:27:17Z modified: 2026-09-30T21:43:33Z url: https://rews.cc/a/manchester-city-found-guilty-on-114-of-115-financial-charges-6dcefa language: en tags: ["football", "sports", "sport", "economy", "manchester-city", "us"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Manchester City Found Guilty on 114 of 115 Financial Charges as Club Vows to Fight *An independent commission found ‘sham’ deals hid about £900 million in owner funding; expulsion is among the possible punishments* By rews desk · September 30, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/manchester-city-found-guilty-on-114-of-115-financial-charges-6dcefa ## In brief - An independent commission found Manchester City guilty on 114 of 115 Premier League financial charges - The panel said sham contracts hid roughly £900 million in owner funding from 2009 to 2018 - City denies wrongdoing, cites “irrefutable evidence” and has until Friday to appeal - Possible sanctions include an unlimited fine, a points deduction or expulsion from the league - The commission will set the punishment later; City next plays Liverpool on Oct. 11 The Premier League said on Tuesday that an independent commission had found Manchester City guilty on 114 of 115 charges of breaking its financial rules, a verdict without precedent in the league’s history and one that could end with the club thrown out of it. The panel found that from 2009 to 2018 the club used “sham” contracts and commercial agreements, a word it used eight times in its redacted findings, to disguise secret funding from its owners in the United Arab Emirates. City overstated its income by roughly £900 million, about $1.18 billion, and understated its expenses by tens of millions, the league said, and the club was found guilty on most counts of failing to cooperate with the investigation, part of a case [years in the making](https://rews.cc/a/manchester-city-115-charges-and-a-verdict-seventeen-years-in-d049aa). City says it has “irrefutable evidence” of its innocence and has until Friday to appeal. The club’s chief executive, Ferran Soriano, rejected the commission’s findings in a video sent to staff on Tuesday, calling the case a “Premier League conspiracy theory.” On Wednesday, Pep Guardiola, who won 20 trophies in 10 years as City’s manager before handing over to his former assistant Enzo Maresca in May, came to the club’s defense on X. “I want every single @ManCity fan to know I am here; more than ever. I am, always have been, always will, be behind my club, my owner, my chairman, Ferran, the players, staff, Enzo and you, our unique supporters,” he wrote. “Let me be clear: we will get through this together. I love you all.” The charges cover the years after Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan bought the club through the Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008, when billions went into the stadium, the training ground and the squad. In that span City won three league titles, three League Cups and an FA Cup, laying the ground for a run that later included the 2023 Champions League and four straight league titles from 2021 to 2024. City has been here before, in a fashion. UEFA banned the club from European competition for two seasons in 2020 for financial breaches, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned the ban and cut a $34 million fine to $11.3 million, ruling that City had failed to cooperate. This time the rules give the Premier League an open hand. Its handbook allows an unlimited fine, a points deduction or expulsion. Everton and Nottingham Forest lost points in the 2023-24 season for single breaches; a deduction scaled to City’s 114 findings could relegate the club on its own. “It’s quite surreal seeing it written down like that,” the former England striker Ian Wright said on ITV, calling the breaches “cheating on an industrial scale.” “I feel unprecedented punishment is required here.” “If the appeal fails, Manchester City cannot stay in the league, they have to suffer,” said David Bernstein, a former City chairman. “And I say that as a supporter and a fan.” Stripping City’s titles would open another tangle: whether runners-up take the trophies and the prize money that came with them, and whether clubs relegated or frozen out of Champions League money during those nine seasons can sue. Christian Purslow, a former Liverpool managing director, told the BBC that clubs would be “queueing up to seek compensation,” with the total potentially running to hundreds of millions. The players of that era are caught in it. “(City) knew it would hurt a lot of people, but they still done it,” the former Manchester United captain Roy Keane told ITV. “If I was a player, I would 100% be sticking those medals in the bin. It’s cheating.” On Sky Sports, the former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said he would be “furious” had he played for City then, adding that “it must be very difficult for them to see what’s going on right now.” The independent commission will decide the punishment at a later date, the league said. Before that, City plays Liverpool on Oct. 11, one of the clubs that finished second to City during the years in question. ## Sources - [Manchester City found 'cheating on an industrial scale' — what comes next?](https://cnn.com/2026/09/30/sport/manchester-city-charges-what-comes-next) — cnn.com - [What happens to Man City after guilty verdict on 114 of 115 charges?](https://aljazeera.com/sports/2026/9/30/what-will-happen-to-man-city-after-the-premier-leagues-guilty-verdict) — aljazeera.com - [Pep Guardiola backs Man City after guilty verdict on financial charges](https://aljazeera.com/sports/2026/9/30/pep-guardiola-backs-man-city-after-guilty-verdict-on-financial-charges) — aljazeera.com