An independent three-person commission found Manchester City guilty of 114 of the 115 Premier League financial charges it faced, The Athletic and The Times reported Friday. The commission heard the case from September to December 2024. The league filed the charges in February 2023. The financial charges cover the 2009-10 through 2017-18 seasons. City won three of its Premier League titles in that stretch, under Abu Dhabi ownership. About a third of the charges say City failed to cooperate with the league's investigation from December 2018 to February 2023. Club executives reportedly learned the outcome at a shareholders' meeting Thursday, and some had to sign nondisclosure agreements. The commission hasn't published its judgment or set a punishment. It will set the punishment at a separate hearing. The Premier League told reporters: "It's a confidential process, we're not commenting at all."

1. City Says Nothing Has Changed and It Will Prove Its Innocence

The club says the process isn't finished and questions whether the league is impartial. Its chairman says he's as confident as he was in 2023.

The club says the reports don't change anything. City's statement Friday said the process "remains ongoing, with significant elements to be completed, and subject to strict confidentiality," and that its position is the same as in February 2023. It also criticized the league. The club said it respected due process "on the basis the Premier League board and executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair minded regulator, free from partisan influence."

The chairman told fans he still expects to prove the club innocent. Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak wrote to supporters Saturday. "The Premier League process still has a long way to run, and our confidence and intent in proving the Club's innocence is just as strong as when this began," he wrote. He said confidentiality stops him from explaining why, and that "even this letter underwent several legal checks." "Nothing has changed," he added.

The players who won say they earned it. Rodri joined City in 2019, after the charged seasons, and now plays for Barcelona. He told a Spain press conference at Wembley: "I can tell you that everything was deserved." Noel Gallagher, the Oasis frontman and City fan, said on the Let Me Talk podcast that "they won it on the pitch." One supporter told BBC Radio 5 Live, "we will fight until the end."

2. Money Isn't Enough: This Camp Wants Points, Titles, or Relegation

A former City chairman and a former league board member say the punishment has to hurt on the pitch. Rivals' ex-players are joking about which medals they're owed.

A former club chairman says a fine isn't enough. David Bernstein, City chairman from 1998 to 2003 and later chairman of the Football Association, told Times Radio that "my beloved club is going to face a very severe penalty" if the verdict survives appeal. He said "money is not sufficient, it would have to be something, unfortunately, more drastic than that."

A former league board member expects a deduction that relegates City. Keith Wyness, the former Everton chief executive who sat on the Premier League board, told Football Insider the appeal looks "tenuous at best." He expects "something up to 50 points, which would probably ensure relegation in some way." "It does seem that the Premier League have scored a resounding victory," he said.

Rivals' ex-players are already asking for the medals. Rio Ferdinand, the former Manchester United defender, replied to the report on X: "Another premier league medal to be added to the cabinet." David de Gea, United's former goalkeeper, posted: "How many Premier League titles have I won then?" Jose Enrique, who played for the Liverpool side that finished two points behind City in 2014, posted a doctored photo of himself polishing the trophy.

The rival clubs are preparing compensation claims. Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham filed legal notices in November 2024 reserving the right to claim compensation if City lost. They're now taking legal advice, and sources put the combined claims above £200 million.

Some of the club's own fans agree. Harri Burton, a City supporter writing for Football Insider, says the club "undoubtedly gained an advantage on the pitch" and "the trophies can certainly be stripped away."

3. Punish City, But Don't Wreck the League to Do It

Two sportswriters say relegation or expulsion would hit the wrong people and drag the league into years of litigation.

One sportswriter says relegating City would punish the wrong people. Kyle Bonn, a writer at The Sporting News, argues that a deduction big enough to send City down means "players' careers would be upended." Those players, he says, "almost certainly had nothing to do with" what happened years ago. Relegating one of the league's biggest draws "would render all their games competitively meaningless," he writes. Stripping titles "does little to actually punish a club on a tangible level," he writes. And if the league expelled City, he asks, where would the club even play?

This camp expects a big fine and a title-ending deduction. Edward Perovic, a writer at Heavy, argues that City will take a heavy hit and survive it. He expects "a fine that will make Chelsea's £10.75 million look like small change" and a deduction that costs City this season's title "without threatening their place in the division." Relegating a club over conduct from eight-plus years ago would "trigger years of legal chaos," he argues. He also thinks the biggest deductions finance experts have suggested are unlikely.

4. Whatever the Punishment, the Process Itself Has Hurt the Game

An Everton analyst says the commission got the verdict right and everything around it went wrong. The Culture Secretary wants it resolved fast and the rules upheld.

The verdict took 17 years to arrive and a day to leak. Paul Quinn, an Everton finance analyst who writes as The Esk, says the commission got it right, but "about 17 years after the first alleged breach." The league told clubs Thursday and made them sign nondisclosure agreements, yet "the outcome was in the public domain on Friday afternoon." He calls that "an information-governance failure of the first order."

He says everything around the ruling failed. Quinn goes further and calls it "complete systemic governance failure." The league only caught the breaches because of hacked documents, and its investigation took four years. It has never published a tariff of sanctions. He puts the odds of a deduction of 30 points or more at 40 percent, and the odds of expulsion much lower.

The government wants it over fast and wants the rules to hold. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said on BBC Radio 5 Live Saturday that most fans "will be feeling this is not a good moment for football as a whole." Fans "need to know that the rules are applied fairly and consistently," she said. On LBC she said she's talking to the league, to City and to other clubs, and "I want to see this resolved as swiftly as possible for the sake of the game." She also pointed to the government's new football regulator and told investors "we are grateful to you for investing in the game."

Where This Lands

City says the process has a long way to run and it still expects to prove its innocence. Its former chairman and a former league board member say a fine won't be enough and relegation is possible. Two sportswriters expect a heavy fine and a deduction that ends the title race but keeps City up. An Everton analyst says the leak and the years of delay already damaged the league, whatever the punishment turns out to be. The Culture Secretary wants the case settled fast and the rules upheld. Either side can appeal within 14 days of the judgment, and a separate hearing would set any punishment. Wyness expects an appeal to take at most two or three months.

Sources