I want to tell you a story. It might be fictional, it might be true (imagine me turning to the camera and winking here). You be the judge.
Let’s say there was a man. Let’s say this man was a crook with a pitch-black void within him where his soul should be. Let’s say this man parlayed mild charisma and familial wealth into fame and a bit more fortune. Let’s say this man, because of a bruised ego, mounted a campaign to become the head of state for one of the most powerful nations in the world. Let’s say this man, shockingly at the time, was successful in that effort.
However, from the moment the man thrust himself into this brightest of spotlights, it became clear to the objective among us that something was awry. Frequently, practically on a daily basis, he was accused of committing various forms of harm. From mundane illegalities to heinous acts against the defenseless, he was alleged to have left a path of destruction in his wake.
But he was allowed to take power anyway. And from there, he did what so many of us expected to him to do. He flaunted a blatant disregard for rules and decorum, and deflected when anyone suggested he’d done so. He demonized journalists and news media, often attempting to intimidate and silence them. He blustered his way to a rabid devotion from his supporters as he continuously made everyday life for them and their neighbors more difficult. He openly used his office to benefit his own interests.
Eventually, the weight of his toxicity told. When he ran for re-election, he lost by a landslide. Of course, he refused to admit this. Instead, he raved about deep state conspiracies and rigged voting systems. When challenged on the fact that he was caught on tape asking for votes to be fabricated in his favor, he shamelessly declared it all to be lies and weakly attempted to discredit the people who embarrassed him. And when none of that worked, he attempted a coup that was absolutely unprecedented in his country’s history.
Perhaps the most unbelievable part of this story is that he got away with all of those attempts to cheat, defraud, and even overthrow the system. After a brief, incomplete attempt at doing so, the people that could have held him to account ultimately forewent their duties and let him off scot-free. Despite the harm he caused, he faced no consequences and was allowed to plan another run at his old position.
Eventually, he took charge of the nation again. Desperately seeking vengeance, and emboldened and encouraged by the lack of punishment before, he kicked his animus into overdrive. He more brazenly than ever abused his power to multiply his own and his allies’ net worth. He wielded wild insinuations, against his detractors. He plunged much of the world into chaos to assuage his brittle self-esteem. And all the while, he took various actions to calcify his grip on power.
Perhaps there is a happy ending to that tale. I don’t quite know how it ends just yet. But one predominant moral of the this story is as follows: if you do not hold powerful people to account for their misdeeds, they will carry on causing harm — likely on an even larger scale. Failing to inflict consequences upon such bad actors sends the message that they can do as they please. And if they can help it, second chances in this arena are exceedingly rare.
That’s why it seems the bad guys always win. Because people let them off in the beginning. Whether it due to a naive belief that such a person will see the error of their ways or because they’re intimidated into looking the other way, that first opportunity to send a message is often missed.
I long worried the Premier League would make a similar mistake with Manchester City. Following the lodging of formal charges against the English top flight’s most recent dynasty, I fretted that the caretakers of justice in this matter would falter at the first sign of resistance. I resigned myself to an acceptance that adequate retribution here was improbable.
But on Tuesday, the Premier League formally announced a finding of guilty on 114 of 115 charges of financial impropriety for its most successful club of the last 15 years. It also released the 40-page Core Decision drafted by an independent panel that ruled on the case. Both carefully crafted pieces of writing not only stated an objective conclusion based on the facts but contained something else in addition: a thin film of condemnation coating every word of what the two parties published.
As one reads further into the Core Decision, the selection of tone becomes more and more justified. It becomes increasingly evident why Richard Masters, Chief Executive of the league, prefaced the official document by stating, “This disciplinary case, and this decision, are the most significant in Premier League history.” Because what has been offered up into the light regarding this scandal — which, it must be remembered, is but the tip of a sky blue iceberg — is unprecedented.
What the independent disciplinary commission found that over the course of nine years, City engaged in a series of sponsorship agreements and other such arrangements that were each deemed to be a sham (as someone who goes by the name “Sham” online, the last couple days have proven rather awkward). Instead of simply executing normal deals as other clubs did, Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) — the company through which Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed owns City — engaged sponsors to pay a fraction of much larger reported fee, the balance of which would be paid by ADUG. Through this “disguised funding scheme”, City effectively received £830.69 million of the £949.94 million of this commercial revenue it reported between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons from ADUG. Over 87% of the funding it tried to pass off as legitimate earnings was blatantly falsified.
It is a staggering inflation of revenue by City. The amount that ADUG injected illegally into its own club through this disguised funding scheme alone is more than most Premier League clubs earned from legitimate avenues during those nine years. The ones that earned more than the value of the disguised revenue scheme didn’t do so by much. City’s fake funding didn’t just leapfrog the honest income of their competitors; it left those other clubs in the dust. It is no wonder that for years, the best shot any other team had at winning the Premier League was a massive stumble by Sheikh Mansour’s artificial juggernauts.
Furthermore, ADUG were found to have engaged in similar duplicity elsewhere. The panel referred to this as the “Fordham arrangement”, and this involved a company called Fordham Sports Image Rights Ltd. purchasing the image rights of various City players at the time for £24.5 million. The only problem was that Fordham, according to the independent commission, “was in reality little more than a front for ADUG”. In effect, City’s owners sold themselves their own players’ rights to make a quick buck and further inflate their revenue.
On top of that, City were found to have effectively paid second contracts under the table to certain members of the first team. Roberto Mancini, who led City to their first Premier League title, additionally served as an advisor to Al Jazira (also owned by Sheikh Mansour). For just a few days of service a year, Mancini was in effect paid a higher salary for this consultant role than he earned as City’s manager — with that money being funneled through Al Jazira by ADUG. ADUG also paid Yaya Touré’s agent for the player’s image rights when it was the club who were required by regulations to make such payments.
But as I stated before, the independent commission did not simply deliver a conclusion on whether the standard of proof had been satisfied to demonstrate a violation of the relevant rules. They passed judgment. These unaffiliated arbiters disposed with diplomatic language because it was fair to do so. In a document surely drafted by lawyers who are paid huge sums to be careful with their words, that will likely be reviewed by an appeal board, the commission decided to speak rather frankly.
In these sorts of proceedings, it takes a lot of confidence in one’s position to speak to intent. You must believe heavily that the evidence before you is so overwhelming, so damning, as to clearly demonstrate a knowledge of the crime and wantonness to proceed with it anyway. And your legal advisors and drafters must be absolutely sure that using such strong language will not look foolish in the future. Clearly, those conditions were satisfied for the panel here.
They stated for the world to see that they had concluded that City’s owners systematically and purposefully engineered a system of fraudulent funding that allowed them to skirt financial regulations and pump their own unsanctioned money into the club. They arrived at the determination that ADUG tweaked this system occasionally so as to continue fooling auditors and regulators. They rejected outright City’s proffered explanation of the disguised funding scheme — that ADUG had simply provided financial assistance to their sponsors as they strove to provide astronomical sponsorship sums — and called it a story “concocted well after the event in an attempt to obscure and conceal the realities” of the falsified revenue. The independent board instead deduced that ADUG had produced certain records (as of yet unrevealed) to assure sponsors they would not be on the hook for the full inflated fees and concealing the ruse from auditors and regulators.
They even saw fit to determine that this plot was initially hatched in order to avoid recording the highest single-season loss in Premier League history.
On top of that, the commission concluded that multiple witnesses provided by City were, as they themselves put it, “dishonest”. The commission, acting as impartially as they could, felt they still had to rule that these witnesses knowingly provided false evidence. That means it was clear based on a review of the available facts and evidence that it could be adequately demonstrated that these provided “experts” must have been aware that they were lying.
This all speaks to a factually insurmountable mountain of evidence laying bare City’s crimes against football and their specific intentions in perpetrating them. Which is more than plausible; there are highly incriminating e-mails floating around on Twitter as I write this (I have included a couple screenshots below with annotations by Magic Hat, who has been at the forefront of analysis of this saga). Imagine what a duly appointed commission with appropriate jurisdiction has accumulated. Imagine what is contained within 7,000 pages of documentation and the verbatim recordings of dozens of witnesses over the course of 42 days of hearings.
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Let’s be absolutely clear here — this crime was committed out in the open, in broad daylight, with an extensive paper trail in its wake and plenty of people involved. This is a club that engaged in fraudulent activity through company e-mails and possessed the gall to claim higher revenues than Real Madrid when basic common sense dictated that such an achievement was highly improbable. They did not try nearly as hard as they should have to hide this, and practically flaunted their wrongdoing at times. It is arrogance of the highest order.
That is because they did not think they would be called into question as they have. They did not think, even if they were found out, the consequences would be more than a slap on the wrist. The decision-makers involved here are simply accustomed to avoiding accountability.
After all, these are now repeat offenders. According to the evidence in the possession of the independent panel, ADUG pursued a variety of schemes to falsify revenue. For the better part of a decade, City unjustly enriched themselves without challenge.
A glance at the club’s bigwigs perhaps sheds some light on how this has come about. On Thursday, Real Madrid released an official communication proclaiming that they had filed a new complaint with UEFA regarding the investigation into alleged payments made by FC Barcelona to José María Enríquez Negreira, a former vice president of the Spanish football federation’s Technical Committee of Referees, between 2001 and 2018. In this new complaint, Real Madrid apparently included new evidence and documentation “that directly affect the integrity of the competition and confidence in the refereeing system.”
Txiki Begiristain, City’s former director of football who left in 2025, worked in the same capacity for Barca from 2003 to 2010. Ferran Soriano, the unblinking CEO of City Football Group who is shown in leaked e-mails instructing staff on how to carry out the disguised funding scheme, previously served on Barca’s board of directors and as an interim CEO there between 2003 and 2008. Pep Guardiola, the all-conquering manager who led City to a dynasty, achieved similar dominance as Barca’s manager from 2008 to 2012.
In addition to working prominent roles at FC Barcelona during a period of time when the club were allegedly engaged in the bribing of a high-ranking referee, the trio sport other controversies in their pasts. Guardiola infamously was plagued for years by a doping case after he tested positive for an anabolic steroid. Soriano was accused of spying on Barca employees suspected of working against Joan Laporta and was initially found guilty of negligence for his role in the bankruptcy of Spanair (the ruling would be overturned in 2016).
Overseeing these three and others of course is Sheikh Mansour, a man who is no stranger to ignominy. The Vice President of the United Arab Emirates has long utilized his influence and obscene wealth to wield both soft and hard power. An avid collector of superyachts, Mansour acquired one called Topaz, only for U.S. prosecutors to discover the purchase had been partially funded using proceeds from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, ultimately forcing the sheikh to pay $1.8 billion to the Malaysia in 2023. His attempted acquisition of The Daily Telegraph that same year was blocked by the UK government because of concerns regarding national security and press freedom. And he has allegedly funded proxy wars across northwestern Africa and Yemen, including one in Sudan that has produced ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity.
By the way, the idea that such an owner and collection of employees simply stopped cheating in 2018, outside the purview of the 115 charges, is frankly fanciful. Not mentioned in the Core Decision due to this constraint in relevant time period. was the club’s commercial partnership with 8Xbet, a sports betting company founded in 2018. At the time, the company’s CEO was announced as being a woman named Trinh Thu Trang. However, it was discovered that the profile picture used on her LinkedIn page was in fact a generic stock photo of a London-based model. Furthermore, 8Xbet was reportedly found to actually operate out of Dubai. The brand has since mysteriously disappeared.
There is also the small matter of various Premier League referees overseeing UAE Pro League matches in 2023. Officials such as Michael Oliver and Darren England were paid tens of thousands of pounds by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, which has connections to Sheikh Mansour and his family. Oliver has given more red cards to Arsenal than any other team, while England returned from the UAE and promptly committed a refereeing debacle that saw Liverpool lose to Spurs.
Just imagine what else they may be guilty of in the last eight years.
In any event, City and ADUG currently stand guilty of almost every charge first levied at them by the Premier League in 2023. But they have responded the way hyper-privileged wrongdoers always do when the consequences of their actions finally begin to loom over them. They have lashed out cynically, solely focused on self-preservation, threatening to escalate matters toward scorched-earth territory with a disregard for the football landscape around them that oozes contempt.
Even before City were officially deemed guilty, they feverishly worked to silence all who spoke out against them. Rui Pinto, the whistleblower who initially helped dragged this conspiracy into the light, required a safe house in an undisclosed location and witness protection by the Portuguese authorities. Coincidentally, this protection has been revoked in the days since the findings have come out, abruptly leaving Pinto to fend for himself without a house, job, or income. Nick Harris of Sporting Intelligence faced intimidation efforts in the form of legal letters from City aiming to get him sacked from the Mail on Sunday.
Now that the guilty judgment is out in the public sphere, City have continued vehemently denying wrongdoing and practically insinuating widespread collusion against the team currently top of the English table. Khaldoon Al Mubarak, City’s chairman, reiterated the club’s statement from 2023 when the Premier League initially brought charges with a preface that contains political “us against them” language. Soriano released a three-minute video in which he refers to the independent panel as the “Premier League Commission”, their decision as an “opinion”, and the 115 charges as a “conspiracy theory” while effectively vowing retaliation. On Friday, City announced on their website that they had lodged an appeal “against the opinion of the Premier League Commission”.
This is purposeful. These statements are not only meant to save face, but to discredit those who have embarrassed them, who have dared to hold them accountable. City are knowingly siccing their devotees after the Premier League and people like Harris and David Ornstein, who broke the story of the guilty decision. It’s something the man I spoke of at the outset of this piece would have done.
Mansour and company are also quickly applying pressure through the soft power they have accumulated through ownership of City. The Financial Times reported this week that Al Mubarak enjoys diplomatic immunity within the United Kingdom, which could complicate any legal proceedings following from this saga. It has been reported by multiple outlets now that UAE officials have warned the British government that the fallout of a negative conclusion for City in this case could have significant impact on relations between the two countries. Even Andy Burnham, once the mayor of Manchester and now the Prime Minister of the UK, risked severe backlash to proclaim that he would be “really concerned” if City were forced into new ownership and that he “can’t intervene more in the process” (suggesting he may have intervened already). The official statement from 10 Downing Street attempting to backpedal included the phrase “If wrongdoing is established”, despite the fact that it clearly already has been.
This is, of course, why so many of us have said from the beginning the nation-states should not own football clubs. Because this is what happens. This is what sportswashing does. It allows foreign entities to entrench themselves within a club’s communities, to effectively leverage goodwill in bad faith and hold football fans hostage. Because Mansour and ADUG have assisted in the enrichment of Manchester through their ownership of City, they now possess something they can take away from people who need it. As they sweat under the cosh, they’re threatening to.
Which means that figures like Burnham will feel the need to come to City’s aid. Which means that fans who have luxuriated in the success of the last 15 years will fight tooth and nail against reality by perpetuating false narratives about the league and City’s rivals, lionizing foreign officials for threatening their own interests, doxxing journalists, and engaging in other desperate measures. They don’t want to lose what City have given them, even if that gift is forever tainted.
And as City scramble to appeal the verdict and elongate proceedings and delay an ultimate, final judgment, there is an ongoing season to worry about. Enzo Maresca’s men currently lead the Premier League. There is a decent chance that they can go on to win it (especially if Arsenal players keep suffering injuries with their national teams). In that event, the dark cloud that already hangs over this edition of the English top flight would burgeon into a menacing thunderhead flashing against a somber sky.
It is no wonder that the Premier League have publicly stated that they hope to reach a true conclusion to this matter as soon as possible. It is no surprise that the clubs have reportedly demanded the case is closed by the end of the current season. As it dawns on us that the meaning of most of the last decade and a half of football has been sapped of meaning, the rest of the English top flight is scrambling to save the legitimacy of this campaign.
But City do not care. They have clearly hindered the progression of the case whenever possible, and both the Premier League and the independent commission have hinted at that. They reportedly even disclosed documents for investigation in a format that did not allow the Premier League to copy or paste text. Now, they’re throwing frivolous arguments at the wall to see what sticks and forcing the intervention of higher powers into the governance of a sport. Even if it means dragging this current season into the mud, regardless of how much uncertainty enshrouds the rest of the league as a result, City fully intend to make this ordeal as painful as possible for everyone.
I’ve seen people suggest that should the guilty verdict stand, City should be fined and sanctioned with mild points deductions over the course of multiple seasons to prevent them from competing in the league. Others have wrung their hands and claimed they would hate to see an exaggerated punishment. While I admire the sympathy shown by both approaches, I must say that mine is nonexistent at this point.
What City have shown repeatedly is that they are more than willing to abuse their power to benefit themselves, even if it erodes the integrity of football institutions. For years, they have essentially flaunted a blatant disregard for rules and decorum. Now, they are demonizing their detractors and wielding malicious insinuations against the rest of the Premier League. Of course the toxicity they have created is beginning to tell.
Because regardless of what happens moving forward, how are the Premier League supposed to continue abiding with them? How are 19 other teams ever going to feel comfortable working with these owners in what is supposed to be a mutually beneficial enterprise? It is clearer than ever that they are in business with people who fundamentally do not care about making money, who do not care about the financial repercussions their actions inflict upon other clubs with greater decency but far more finite pockets. How are others supposed to coexist with such a malignant operator in their midst?
What’s also clear is that if they are not held accountable for the most titanic mockery of the competitive spirit in Premier League history, City will commit more and worse infractions upon the English game. And knowing that other clubs are mobilizing legal teams to seek damages, knowing that they are disgraced in the eyes of all but a few football fans, they will do so with a thirst for vengeance. Again, how can this league continue on with a club now committed to waging war against the rest?
The simple answer is, it can’t. If the guilty verdict against City stands, the club in its current form must be extinguished for the good of the English game.
This can mean a variety of things, but the objective of any punishment must be thus: to remove Sheikh Mansour and ADUG as owners of the club, to permanently erase their stolen valor, and to destroy the foundation that currently allows City to compete for the highest honors. For me, that means expulsion from the Premier League and leaving them to the mercy of the EFL. It means an exorbitant, never-before-seen level of fine imposed upon City. It means rendering every title they have won under the current ownership null and void. And it means offering ADUG a choice: sell the club, or face the wrath of Arsenal’s, Liverpool’s, Manchester United’s, Spurs’, and any other party’s lawyers as they attempt to extract compensation for what they have been robbed of over the years — a fate which surely spells liquidation for City.
This is an extinction-level threat for the Premier League as we know it. ADUG have lost, and now they are attempting a coup. If geopolitical forces successfully place their thumbs on the scale, if sportswashing does indeed prevail, the English top flight will be forever undermined. The competition that has become one of the sport’s greatest spectacles will be outed as an undeniable farce. Broadcasters and sponsors will go and take their money with them. Players and coaches will look elsewhere to build a name for themselves. Viewership will dwindle and apathy will set in. And all that will be left are City, dominating a yearly one-horse race, a second Paris Saint-Germain.
Ultimately, it’s them or us. Fingers crossed the appeal board feels the same way.
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