LONDON — Nearly four years after the Premier League first laid 115 charges against them, Manchester City have reportedly been found guilty of 114 of them, in a ruling that threatens to reshape English football’s understanding of what “success” has meant at the Etihad since 2009, and one the club is already preparing to appeal.
ValidViewNetwork can confirm that the charges, first brought in February 2023 following a four-year Premier League investigation, accused City of failing to provide accurate financial information between 2009 and 2018 and of refusing to cooperate with the league’s subsequent inquiry.
A hearing that took a decade to arrive
This case has been years in the making.
Findings show the independent panel’s hearing into the charges began on September 16, 2024, at London’s International Dispute Resolution Centre, running through early December that year before closing arguments were heard, with a verdict not expected until well into 2025, and now, apparently, delivered in 2026.
Fifty-four of the charges concerned allegedly inaccurate financial reporting; a further 35 concerned non-cooperation with investigators.
City’s defence, and the appeal path ahead
According to reports gotten by ValidViewNetwork, City have consistently and strongly denied all wrongdoing, describing their defence as built on “irrefutable evidence” and expressing surprise when the charges were first announced.
Football finance analysts have previously warned that any City appeal faces long odds, citing Nottingham Forest’s failed appeal against a points deduction and a caution from an independent panel that “errors which are not material to the ultimate decision” rarely overturn a ruling.
What could still be coming
ValidViewNetwork gathered that punishments on the table, should the ruling stand, range from significant financial penalties to points deductions or, in the most severe scenario floated by football finance experts, expulsion from the Premier League, a prospect once considered almost unthinkable for a club that has won eight of the last thirteen league titles.
With an appeal now expected, English football’s most consequential financial-fair-play case is far from its final chapter. ValidViewNetwork reports.
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