Manchester City, more trouble: opposition players are seeking financial compensation for sporting objectives and bonuses that slipped away

Manchester City have been found guilty of 114 of the 115 financial breaches alleged, as announced by the Premier League, which also clarified that the Manchester club are guilty of most of the charges relating to their failure to cooperate with the League's investigation in that regard. They now risk facing claims from opposing players who have been rivals of the Citizens over those years. According to Sky Sports News, rival players and their representatives have contacted several lawyers over possible financial claims against the club, to recover possible missed bonuses, whether for having lost a title or European qualification.

The fictitious agreements

The statement shows that, in the period under examination, Manchester City entered into sham commercial agreements with various sponsors as part of a hidden financing system under which the companies paid only part of the amounts set out in the sponsorship contracts . ADUG, the company that owns the club, funded the rest. As part of that system, the club also concluded other sham agreements, funded by ADUG, to allow the club to record operating expenses lower than those actually incurred, as well as a sham circular agreement with Fordham, an entity that purchased the image rights of the club's players, funded by ADUG.

Administrative doping

The club used these expedients to artificially inflate the club’s revenues and reduce its costs by more than £900 million during the period in question so it could appear compliant with the financial regulations. As the Commission established, the consequence was that the club submitted falsified financial statements and concealed the real financial situation from the auditors and football’s regulatory bodies . The Commission concluded that "through its conduct, the club clearly intended to circumvent the Premier League’s rules".

The requests of the opposing players

Specifically, the Premier League statement reads: "The independent commission found that, between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons: Manchester City entered into ‘fictitious’ contracts (which misrepresented the true agreement between the parties) with several commercial partners, and also made use of ‘fictitious’ agreements with others, in order to artificially inflate the club’s revenues and reduce their costs; the club submitted falsified accounts and concealed the true financial situation from the auditors and football’s regulatory bodies; Manchester City significantly breached the spending limits of both the Premier League and UEFA; during the Premier League’s investigation, Manchester City committed multiple breaches of their obligations of co-operation and utmost good faith towards the League (three of the four alleged breaches were upheld)". Now more trouble is coming, with financial claims from those who competed with City during those years and saw sporting and economic targets slip away because of the Manchester club’s administrative doping.