Manchester City responds: revealing inflated sponsorship revenues over nine seasons violating Premier League financial regulations.
On 30 Sep 2026 GMT+7, BBC Sport disclosed the inflated sponsorship figures of Manchester City over nine seasons, which led to serious Premier League financial rule violations.
Manchester City was charged with 115 offenses in February 2023 after a four-year investigation concerning breaches from the 2009-10 to 2017-18 seasons. The 'Sky Blues' deny wrongdoing and announced plans to appeal.
An independent panel found that Manchester City created "fake" contracts that distorted actual agreements with multiple commercial partners, using similar arrangements with other partners to unfairly boost revenue and reduce costs.
BBC Sport revealed that in early 2010, Manchester City began securing additional funding through unprecedentedly high-value sponsorship agreements, significantly above market rates. This process was termed a 'disguised funding scheme.'
Sponsorship agreements were split into two parts: a base fee and a tagged sum.
Sponsors paid the base fee, while the club owner covered the tagged sum.
As a result, sponsors did not pay the full contract value; the owner bore most of the cost, enabling the club to invest in player acquisitions.
Documents state this practice "misled external parties (including regulators and auditors) via financial statements and FFP reports, making commercial sponsorship revenue appear significantly higher than actual."
The club recognized the need for flexibility and periodically adjusted this disguised funding scheme to "further conceal information" and "reduce the risk of difficult inquiries."
Commercial sponsorship income from 2009-10 to 2017-18 totaled £949.94 million. The ruling states only £119.25 million was base fees.
The tagged sums, paid by the owner, amounted to £830.69 million.
Manchester City denies these allegations, claiming the Premier League misunderstood the sponsorship agreements.
However, the panel "rejects these claims as untrue" and states they were "fabricated post-event to distort and conceal the facts about the disguised funding scheme."
An example of this concealment mechanism was addressing an unexpected financial shortfall in May 2013.
Less than a week before the 2012-13 fiscal year ended, the club realized it lacked £9.9 million to meet UEFA's financial regulations.
Within days, without contacting any sponsors, several updated sponsorship contracts were drawn up, increasing reported sponsorship revenue to fund bonuses for completed activities and expenses for a U.S. tour.
This resolved the FFP liquidity shortfall that had been a concern.
Manchester City has until 2 October to file an appeal.
