Manchester City’s Guilty Verdict Leaves the Medals in Dispute

An independent commission found Manchester City guilty of hiding more than £900 million through sham contracts, after which Pep Guardiola, already gone, pledged he was still behind the club. The panel’s core decision, published on 29 September 2026, covers nine seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18. Sanctions have not been set. The first public argument is already about medals.

Guardiola left at the end of last season after a decade in the job. Enzo Maresca now manages the side. City have until Friday 2 October to appeal, and the shirt sponsor spent Wednesday hiring lawyers.

The Commission Found More Than £900m Was Hidden

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters called the ruling the most significant disciplinary case in the competition’s history. The commission found City used sham contracts with commercial partners, and sham agreements with others, to more than £900 million in sham schemes (about $1.2bn), so the books would look as if spending limits had been met.

How the Sponsorship Fees Were Split

Sponsors were found to have paid only part of the fees written into the deals. Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd, then the owner and known in the papers as ADUG, funded the rest. That disguised-funding scheme was put at £830.69 million. Further ADUG-funded arrangements let the club book lower operating costs than it actually ran, including a circular image-rights deal with an entity named Fordham.

THE MONEY THE COMMISSION COUNTED

In the three title seasons inside the window, 2011-12, 2013-14 and 2017-18, City recorded £360 million in sponsor fees. The commission found only £43 million of that was real commercial money. The rest, it said, came from the owners and was dressed up as sponsorship. “The relevant sponsorship agreements were found to be shams, or at minimum did not reflect their economic substance,” the panel wrote.

The Panel’s Four Findings

WHAT THE CORE DECISION UPHELD

• Sham deals: Contracts misrepresented the true agreement with commercial partners, and other sham agreements were used to puff up income and trim costs.
• Misstated accounts: The club filed accounts that hid the true state of its finances from auditors and football regulators.
• Spending limits: Accurate books would have put City in breach of Premier League and UEFA limits by a very substantial amount.
• Non-cooperation: Three of four charges that the club failed in its duties of co-operation and utmost good faith were upheld.

The charges covered well over 100 alleged individual breaches across four broad categories. The panel said a number of important club witnesses gave false evidence in key respects, and that some knowingly gave untrue and dishonest evidence. It also said the scheme let City avoid recording what would otherwise have been the largest single-season loss in Premier League history in 2009-10. Masters said the decision “details how the club systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade.”

City have won eight Premier League titles since the 2008 takeover. Three of those, plus five other trophies in the same stretch, sit inside the charged window. Guardiola’s first league title, in 2017-18, is one of them.

Pep Guardiola Left, Then Said He Was Still There

Guardiola took the job in July 2016 and walked away last summer. In 10 years he won six Premier League titles, including four in a row from 2020-21 to 2023-24, plus the Champions League, three FA Cups and five League Cups. Two of his seasons, including that first title, overlap the guilty window. The rest of his haul sits after it.

On 30 September he posted a message to supporters. He named the owner, chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, chief executive Ferran Soriano, the players, the staff, Maresca, and the fans, and he used the present tense about a club he no longer manages.

I want every single Manchester City fan across the world to know I am here; more than ever. I am, always have been, always will, be behind my club, my owner, my chairman, Ferran [Soriano], the players, staff, Enzo [Maresca] and you, our unique supporters. Let me be clear: we will get through this together. I love you all.

Pep Guardiola, former Manchester City manager, social media post, 30 September 2026

The note landed after he had already left, which is why it reads as a message from outside the building. In November 2024, while still in post, he had said he would still be there even if the club were relegated. The new version asks fans to take the same loyalty from a man who is no longer picking the team.

Roy Keane Would Bin the Medals

Before England played Czechia, Roy Keane was asked what he would do with the medals if he had been a City player in the charged years. He did not hedge.

If I was a player, I’d be 100% sticking those medals in the bin. Of course you would, it’s cheating. They won it on the pitch because cheating was going on. They knew it would hurt a lot of people, but they’ve still done it.

Roy Keane, former Manchester United captain, after the verdict

Wayne Rooney, who finished second with United in 2011-12, does not want that title handed over if City’s is taken away. He said he would not feel comfortable accepting another Premier League medal because United did not do enough that season to finish first. He also said City players who knew nothing about the books would be devastated to see a title pulled. He still wants a sporting penalty, and he said he thinks the club will be relegated, with spending caps behind it.

WHERE EXPERTS DISAGREE

• Roy Keane: The medals are worthless because the on-pitch wins happened while cheating was going on, and he would throw them away.
• Wayne Rooney: Do not reassign 2011-12 to United; punish City with relegation and spending limits instead of rewriting the table.
• Jamie Carragher: The titles should come off City’s list. Giving other clubs medals later does not return the feeling of winning in real time.

Micah Richards, who came through City’s academy and was on the bench when Sergio Aguero won the 2012 title, said the language of sham contracts left him devastated. He said a lifelong supporter who once housed him as a teenager rang him in tears. Mauricio Pochettino, who had Tottenham in the same era, called it a period of deception and asked where the controls were, recalling 18 months at Spurs with no transfers while chasing a top-four place. La Liga president Javier Tebas said the most severe sanction in the Premier League rulebook should apply.

Abu Dhabi’s Airline Wants a Hearing

Etihad Airways, City’s principal shirt sponsor since 2009, is not named in the redacted core decision. On 30 September the airline said it “categorically rejects any finding, conclusion or implication” that it took part in improper commercial arrangements. It said the Premier League never contacted it, never let it give evidence, and never let it test material that now reflects badly on the company.

The airline said it is deeply concerned by the way the findings were put out, after leaks and selective disclosure, and that it is seeking legal advice to protect its interests. It also said it still stands with the club, the supporters, and its own staff while City challenge the conclusions. That puts a sponsor which sat at the centre of the charged years into the legal fight, even though the published ruling does not name it.

City Call It a Premier League Conspiracy

City’s newsroom statement on 29 September said the club was disappointed and surprised by the opinion and “innocent of the accusations.” It said a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence supports its positions, and that it will be relentless in regulatory and legal forums. It will appeal on the basis that the opinion contains clear material errors of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe. The club added that it had respected due process for eight years on the assumption the league would act as an impartial regulator, free from partisan influence.

Soriano, in a video to staff and players, went further. He said the whole case rests on a single false accusation, that the owner’s personal money was secretly put into the club through Abu Dhabi sponsors. He said bank statements, transfers and witnesses showed that did not happen. After nearly two years, he said, the commission had issued an opinion that supports “the Premier League’s conspiracy theory” and had ignored the club’s evidence. Chairman Al Mubarak had already written to supporters on the Saturday before publication, telling them nothing had changed and that the club still expected to prove its innocence.

Culture secretary Lisa Nandy called the report incredibly stark and said it was causing concern for City fans and for supporters across the league. David Bernstein, City chairman from 1998 to 2003, said the credibility of the Premier League is at stake and that, if the findings stand, a financial penalty is not enough because money does not mean much to these owners. He said the club could not stay in the Premier League. The Independent Football Regulator said the decision raises serious issues. Other top-flight clubs have begun taking advice on possible compensation claims.

Friday Is the Appeal Deadline

The league began its investigation in December 2018 and issued a complaint in February 2023. A 42-day hearing ended in December 2024. The commission later said it had taken much longer than it wished to write the decision, working from about 7,000 pages of witness transcripts and a bundle that ran to tens of thousands of pages. An appeal board confirmed the core decision is a “final award,” which is why a redacted summary could be published at all.

HOW THE CASE GOT HERE

1. December 2018: The Premier League opens its investigation into Manchester City.
2. February 2023: A complaint is issued under Section W of the league’s rules.
3. December 2024: A 42-day independent hearing concludes.
4. 29 September 2026: The league publishes the core decision finding City guilty of all financial charges and three of four non-cooperation charges.
5. 2 October 2026: Deadline for City to file an appeal.

The club has said it will appeal. League rules say an appeal should conclude no more than 12 weeks after it is filed, with a decision within 30 days of that end. City cannot take this process to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, though a High Court claim that the process was not impartial remains a possible later step. A separate sanctions hearing will sit with the same independent commission and stay private until publication is allowed. The non-exhaustive menu in the handbook includes fines, points deductions and other sporting sanctions. Masters said the league wants the rest of the process moved through swiftly.

Senior figures at other clubs have said they see no reason the punishment cannot be handed down before this season ends, if the work is done properly. That is still an ambition, not a date. The medals from 2011-12, 2013-14 and 2017-18 remain in the cabinet. The appeal window closes on Friday 2 October.