The English Premier League released a scathing, nearly 1,600-word statement on Tuesday confirming that Manchester City has been found guilty on all charges of using “sham” contracts and sponsorships to funnel money into the organization, buy superstar players, and breach EPL and UEFA financial laws.
“An independent Commission has found Manchester City FC guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period, and the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the League’s investigation,” the league wrote about one of its most prestigious clubs.
The Premier League statement goes on to outline how this commission concluded that Man City falsified and created numerous “sham” sponsorship deals that funneled money from companies also owned by City's principal owners—Sheikh Mansour and the Abu Dhabi United Group—to the EPL team in order to boalster their finances and allow them to spend more money than other clubs were allowed to under the EPL and UEFA's financial rules.
Article Continues BelowThe statement says that, “The Commission concluded that ‘by its conduct the club clearly intended to circumvent the PL Rules‘.”
Manchester City immediately responded to the Premier League with a statement of their own.
Manchester City FC is both disappointed and surprised by the opinion of the Premier League Commission, that has been published today,” City's statement reads. “The Club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions, relating to this case. The Club will therefore be relentless, and where necessary proactive, in any and all appropriate regulatory and legal forums.”