Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has said the club remains confident it will prove its innocence after widespread reports that an independent commission found City liable for 114 of the 115 Premier League financial-rule charges brought against it. The findings have not been accompanied by a published commission judgment or confirmed sanction, and the case is expected to continue through further legal processes.
In an open letter to supporters, Al Mubarak said: “The Premier League process still has a long way to run, and our confidence and intent in proving the club’s innocence is just as strong as when this began.” He said the club could not publicly set out all of the reasons for its confidence because of the strict confidentiality surrounding the process.
The Premier League charged City in February 2023 following a four-year investigation into alleged breaches between the 2009–10 and 2017–18 seasons. The charges cover a range of alleged financial and regulatory failures, including 54 alleged failures to provide accurate financial information, 14 relating to player and manager remuneration information, alleged FFP and profitability-and-sustainability breaches, and alleged failures to cooperate with the Premier League investigation. City have consistently denied wrongdoing.
The potential consequences remain unclear. An independent commission can impose sanctions including fines and points deductions; more serious punishments are also available under Premier League rules. But no sanction has been announced, and any final outcome is likely to be delayed by the appeals process. It is therefore premature to state that City will be deducted points, demoted or expelled.
The reported findings have intensified scrutiny of City’s decade of success under Abu Dhabi ownership, during which the club won multiple Premier League titles and its first Champions League trophy. Yet Al Mubarak’s response makes clear that City intend to contest the case rather than accept the reported outcome as final. “Nothing has changed,” he said, arguing that the club’s position remains as strong as it was at the start of the process.
For City, the next stage is not a footballing verdict but a legal one: the determination of any sanction, publication of the commission’s reasoning, and an anticipated appeal. Until those processes are complete, the scale of the sporting and financial consequences remains uncertain.
