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Man City charges: The era-defining ‘Trial of the Century’ dissected

Designed image showing Man City badge and Premier League badge side by side, with rip between them
Manchester City will battle the Premier League’s 115 charges against them over the next 10 weeks

“It is a battle for the soul of the Premier League – what happens off the pitch this season will define us for a generation.”

That is the verdict of one leading football official ahead of the start on Monday of what has been billed as sport’s ‘Trial of the Century’.

In one corner is the Premier League, the world’s most popular sports league and one of Britain’s most successful cultural exports. In the other is Manchester City, the club who have dominated the competition with eight titles in the past 13 seasons, including an unbroken streak of four in a row that they hope will become five this term.

The hearing, which is expected to last around 10 weeks, will engage some of the country’s finest legal brains.

Expulsion from the Premier League is at one end of the tribunal’s powers. Alternatively, a verdict that exonerates City – particularly with any favourable outcome on their separate challenge over the legality of associated party transaction rules – would shorten the odds on another decade of dominance.

Head coach Pep Guardiola, right (holding up six fingers), and club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak celebrate with the Premier League trophy on May 19, 2024
The legitimacy of the means used by Man City to achieve their recent trophy haul will come under scrutiny over the next few weeks - AP/Dave Thompson

Anyone hoping for a grand courtroom cliffhanger, with daily twists and turns for the football-loving public to follow, however, will be sorely disappointed. The secrecy surrounding the hearing extends even to confirmation from the Premier League of basic details like when it will start, where it will be held and the precise number of charges (variously interpreted from the statement as between 115 and 130).

So what do we know?

The charges and what they mean

It is now nearly six years since German newspaper Der Spiegel published its first series of allegations – based on documents it obtained via Football Leaks – that became the prelude to a Premier League investigation into Manchester City’s financial information. It culminated on February 6 last year with a solemn statement on the league’s website that began by saying: “In accordance with Premier League Rule W.82.1, the Premier League confirms that it has today referred a number of alleged breaches of the Premier League Rules by Manchester City Football Club (Club) to a Commission under Premier League Rule W.3.4.”

The phrase “a number” turned out to be quite the understatement as the Premier League then detailed every alleged rule breach between 2009 and 2023. They totalled more than 100 and were split into five groups:

  1. The biggest proportion of the charges related to rules that require clubs to provide accurate financial information. It is stressed repeatedly in annual Premier League yearbooks that clubs must act in the utmost good faith and give a “true and fair view” of their income, including sponsorship, their related parties and operating costs. The breaches here relate to all of the seasons between 2009-10 and 2017-18. In each of those seasons, the Premier League alleges between four and six breaches of specific rules.

  2. There are then a series of charges regarding the accuracy of details that City provided both for their manager and player payments in the period between 2009-2010 and 2016-17. In its charge sheet, the Premier League simply refers to the rules and the seasons in which they were broken. However, the manager breaches only relate to the period between 2009-10 and 2012-13, when Roberto Mancini was leading the team. The breaches with respect to player payments relate to all of the seasons between 2010-11 and 2015-16.

  3. As well as the Premier League, Uefa has a set of financial rules and clubs in the English top flight are obliged to comply with their licensing and financial fair play (FFP) regulations. City are accused by the Premier League of failing to comply with these rules from 2013-14 until 2017-18. They were initially banned for two years from European competition by Uefa in 2020 for alleged breaches of their FFP rules but the club successfully overturned that suspension in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).

  4. The Premier League also brought in profit and sustainability rules (PSR) from 2013, which limited a club’s financial losses over three years to £105m. The losses cannot simply be covered by a wealthy owner, meaning a club’s spending capacity also becomes dictated by the size of its wage bill and how much it can earn ‘naturally’ from income like sponsorship. City are also alleged to have breached rules on profit and sustainability in every season from 2015-16 until 2017-18.

  5. The Premier League investigation was launched in December 2018 and a further tranche of charges relate to rules requiring members to cooperate and assist investigations in the utmost good faith, including by providing documents and information. It is alleged that the failure stretches through the entire five seasons from 2018-19 up until the 2022-23 season when the Premier League investigation ended.

City deny any wrongdoing and, in response to the Premier League statement about the alleged breaches, said they have “irrefutable evidence” to support their position and “look forward to this matter being put to rest once and for all.”

City manager Pep Guardiola also said on Friday: “All the Premier League teams want us to be sanctioned. I say… wait for the independent panel. We believe we have not done anything wrong.”

Do we have more detail on how City are actually alleged to have breached the rules?

Yes and no. The Premier League have not published further detail but we do know what Der Spiegel have alleged in its reporting, as well as some details of the case that Uefa brought over its rules. Based on documents it has received from Football Leaks, Der Spiegel has claimed the Premier League investigation focused on three areas. Underage players were allegedly pressured to sign contracts with City through monetary payments. Club sponsors in Abu Dhabi were suspected of having provided only some of their payments to the club themselves, with a significant proportion allegedly coming from owner Sheikh Mansour. Mancini is said to have been paid on top of his Manchester City salary for working as a consultant with Al Jazira Sports and Cultural Club, which is controlled by City’s Abu Dhabi owners.

Manchester City's former manager Roberto Mancini (left) with owner Sheikh Mansour, centre, and former chief executive Gary Cook at the 2011 Community Shield
Roberto Mancini (left) with chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak (centre) and former chief executive Gary Cook at the 2011 Community Shield - Action Images/Carl Recine

A key part of the Uefa case against City was the claim that money declared as sponsorship money from Etihad Airways was in fact paid directly to the club by Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group, which owns City. Cas, however, announced in 2020 that the club were cleared of “disguising equity funds as sponsorship contributions”. They also said that City did “fail to cooperate with Uefa authorities”. City said the decision was “validation of the club’s position”.

When the Premier League investigation began, City said the allegations were “entirely false” and that allegations originally published in German newspaper Der Spiegel came from “illegal hacking and out of context publication of City emails”.

In July 2022, after Der Spiegel had released more emails following the Cas decision, the club said in a statement: “The questions and matters raised by Der Spiegel appear to be a cynical attempt to publicly re-litigate and undermine a case that has been fully adjudicated. Manchester City’s policy remains not to comment on out of context materials purported to have been criminally obtained from City Football Group and Manchester City personnel.”

They have also previously said that an “attempt to damage the club’s reputation is organised and clear”.

What will happen over the next 10 weeks?

A three-person commission has been appointed by Murray Rosen, the chair of the Premier League’s judicial panel, and it will finally sit to hear its first day of evidence on Monday. Rosen must confirm the identities of the commission to members of the Premier League board and City but their identities are otherwise kept secret.

Each appointed individual must complete a statement of impartiality. No details of the proceedings over the coming weeks will be provided even to other Premier League clubs, who also separately await the outcome of City’s challenge of the league’s associated party transaction rules.

That was heard in June but no ruling has been communicated before the start of City’s hearing, even though it could be argued to be relevant to the case. The time that the Premier League’s investigation has taken was even raised in the High Court in 2021.

“It is surprising, and a matter of legitimate public concern, that so little progress has been made after two and a half years – during which, it may be noted, the club has twice been crowned as Premier League champions,” the court said.

Two more Premier League titles have since been added but the current expectation is that the hearing will be completed by Christmas and a verdict will follow in the New Year.

The outcome is almost certain to define City’s quest for an unprecedented fifth straight league title. It will also heavily determine how their past success is forever viewed.