Photo Courtesy of Geof Sheppard
By Thamoda Haputhantrhi
*Editor’s Note: This story is a part of a new series of column written stories*
On September 25 2026, a tweet from David Ornstein and the Athletic shocked the world of soccer. Manchester City, English footballing superpower were found guilty of 114 of the 115 presented charges levied against them in February of 2024 by the English Premier League.
Manchester City was taken over by Sheikh Mansour through the Abu Dhabi United Group in September 2008.
Since 2008, Manchester City has won eight Premier Leagues, four FA Cups, seven EFL League Cups, one Champions League, one Club World Cup and became the second English team since Manchester United in 1999 to win the treble (Premier League, FA Cup and the Champions League).
As the English Premier League stated between the years of 2009/10 and 2017/18 Manchester City were found guilty of charges stated below:
- Manchester City arranged ‘sham’ contracts (which misrepresented the true agreement between the parties) with a number of its commercial partners, as well as relying on ‘sham’ agreements with others, to artificially inflate the club’s revenues and reduce its costs
- The club filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators
- Manchester City was significantly in breach of both the Premier League’s and UEFA’s spending limits – During the Premier League’s investigation,
- Manchester City committed multiple breaches of its duties of co-operation and utmost good faith towards the League (three of the four alleged breaches were upheld)
So, what do these charges truly mean?
The premier league has rules in place, which some fans may argue may favor the bigger teams, under profit and sustainability rules and financial fairplay regulations.
These regulations ensure the fair nature of how clubs are run, without per se unfair levels of money being pumped into clubs to ‘buy’ the league.
Manchester City were found guilty of inflating their revenue by 900 million over the years from 09/10 to 17/18 through ‘sham’ contracts with sponsorships.
This guilty verdict, yet to be appealed, really pulls into questions for what this means for what Manchester City has achieved in that timeframe and even after the fact.
The incredible level of financial fraud, and the incredulous bullying of other clubs in the transfer market-built Manchester City into the franchise they are today.
Big names such as Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva, Yaya Toure, can we be so sure that their entrances into Manchester were fair, were they just?
So, what kind of punishments could City look at facing? The Premier League will have to make an example out of them and come down hard on Manchester City, especially if their appeal gets overturned, because cheating of this order, 114 charges, must be punished with full effect.
Manchester City have already pleaded their innocence and claimed they have irrefutable evidence for the Premier League to go through, and take this to the courts, so it will probably be a good while before we find the genuine punishment and verdict to end the saga.
For now, there are more questions than answers. What happens to Manchester City, their trophies, their rivals and the records they set may ultimately depend on what comes next in the courts.
One thing, however, is certain, the legacy of Manchester City’s golden era will never be discussed in quite the same way again.