The cracks beneath Manchester City’s foundation continue to spread rampantly as the Premier League announced on Tuesday the club was found guilty of all charges related to serious financial breaches.
An independent commission alleged that from the 2009-10 season to the 2017-18 season the club had lied and deceived about roughly $1.2 billion in finances. This was done to evade the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules as well as UEFA’s Financial Fair Play Rules.
Sky News reporter Rob Harris tracked down City Football Group CEO Ferran Soriano after the hearing for what might be the best 30 seconds of sports journalism we’ll see this year.
Sky News Man City CEO interview
"Do you apologise to football fans? The Premier League says 'sham' contracts, is this a 'sham' club?"@RobHarris questions Man City chief executive Ferran Soriano after the club was found guilty of all charges related to Premier League's financial ruleshttps://t.co/3A2kYsOcCZ pic.twitter.com/LstPJGEPd7
— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 29, 2026
Oftentimes a minimal or mute response speaks volumes more than a wordy reply. Soriano’s silence to Harris’ question of “is this a sham club?” is imagery that will long live in the minds of Premier League fans.
Harris has received high praise from football fans worldwide for not backing down from the moment and demanding answers from City’s highest figure.
Manchester City’s financial treachery was committed through “sham accounts” according to the Premier League’s statement.
“The independent Commission found that Manchester City arranged ‘sham’ commercial deals with a number of its sponsors during the period, which were part of a disguised funding scheme, whereby those companies were only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.
“The remainder was funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club. As part of the scheme, further ‘sham’ arrangements, funded by ADUG, were entered into to enable the club to record lower operating expenses than it actually incurred, as well as a ‘sham’ circular arrangement with Fordham, an entity that purchased the club’s players’ image rights, that was funded by ADUG,” the EPL stated.
On top of the financial breaches, the Premier League stated that Manchester City “committed multiple breaches of its duties of cooperation and utmost good faith.” The club made efforts to block and disrupt the investigation multiple times over the course of four years.
Soriano released a three-minute video for Man City staff in response to Tuesday’s news. The City CEO claimed that the EPL’s case is “based on a false accusation” and that the club hasn’t done anything wrong.
Ferran Soriano’s message to #ManCity staff. ⤵️
➖ Case based on ‘false accusation’
➖ Sponsorship money not from owner
➖ ‘Irrefutable evidence’ provided
➖ Premier League ‘conspiracy theory’
➖ Extensive evidence ‘ignored’
➖ Conclusion ‘clearly wrong’
➖ Appeal will be filed… pic.twitter.com/Xj1RTvbfKX— City Report (@cityreport_) September 29, 2026
Soriano’s club has the right to appeal up until Friday, Oct. 2.
As for sanctions and punishments for City, those will be addressed in a later hearing.
