Manchester City

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"I do sympathise with a lot of fans here," Yasin Patel, a barrister specialising in sports law, told BBC Radio 5 Live when discussing the Premier League's verdict on the Manchester City charges.

"But there are rules saying owners shouldn't do that, and if they had done that then they should've been open about it," he added when asked whether the club were simply spending their own money when they breached the Premier League's financial rules.

"We have to go back a few years, but those football supporters who have seen their clubs close because of debt and overspending will highlight that their clubs fell into that situation.

"Their supporters and communities suffered because the owners at the time did not have the money, or were taking money out of the club which they shouldn't have done. Hence why rules were put in place by Uefa back in the early 2000s.

"The Premier League then changed its rules so that clubs could have losses of up to £105m.

"I do sympathise with a lot of fans here. They are right - we are all pointing the finger at Manchester City, apart from those who live in the community and support them.

"They will say, 'Look at us, we were there before'. These guys have come along and changed everything. They have changed the blue side of Manchester, helped the community and put them on the map.

"There is a point to be made that if they are putting their own money into the club and taking money out, it is their own resources - but there are rules saying they shouldn't do that, and if they have done that then they should've been open about it.

"Alternatively, if they haven't shown the statistics and numbers they should've been showing, in terms of auditing accounts, and payments have been hidden, then takes it into a completely different category.

"The word 'fraud' has been used because they have been defrauding, in effect, the auditors and ultimately the Premier League."

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Former Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has posted a message on social media following the news of his former club being found guilty of financial breaches.

Guardiola said in the post, external: "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."

He signed off with "I love you all" alongside a blue heart.

Guardiola led City to 17 major trophies, including six Premier League titles and a Champions League victory, during his 10-year reign at the club.

Among reaction elsewhere, ex-City defender and academy graduate Micah Richards said he felt "absolutely devastated" after reading the Premier League's "damning" guilty verdict on the club's financial charges.

"The reports were troubling," he said on The Rest is Football podcast. "I saw the words which were used by the Premier League in 'sham contracts' and I felt absolutely devastated.

"I was at that club since I was 14 years old, I would die for that club. I achieved my dream at Manchester City, but then to hear these reports, and not only me as an ex-player, but the fans, what they have to go through, absolutely devastating."

Follow reaction to the verdict and fallout here

"I think we have all started to understand the severity of this now," said former Premier League goalkeeper Paul Robinson on the latest episode of BBC Radio 5 Live's Football Daily.

"What I don't understand is how the Premier League have been so strong with what they've come out with and yet Manchester City have levelled them back with just as strong words. They are both fighting their corners in extreme ways."

In the wake of the Premier League publishing their verdict on Manchester City's charges, Kelly Somers is joined by Robinson, BBC Sport's football issues correspondent Dale Johnson, football finance expert Kieran Maguire and BBC Radio 5 Live's senior football correspondent John Murray on Football Daily, as they break down the "damning statement".

Former Manchester City chairman David Bernstein is also on hand to unpack the "really terrible" situation, adding that "the whole credibility of the league is at stake".

Listen to the full podcast below or listen on BBC Sounds

Dale Johnson
Football issues correspondent

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"To cheat, trick, deceive, delude with false pretences; to impose upon, take in, hoax." That is the Oxford English definition of the word 'sham'.

It is a word that appears eight times in the independent commission's ruling, published on Tuesday, which found Manchester City guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of financial rules - and all but one in relation to a failure to co-operate with the investigation.

The 40-page document makes fascinating reading.

It catalogues how the club's owners, Abu Dhabi United Group, knew from the 2009-10 season that there would be major overspends if the club was to reach the level they wanted to get to.

So, the ruling says, Manchester City found a way to boost sponsorship income - season, after season, after season. For nine seasons, in fact.

These were ambitious new owners who didn't just want the club to be competitive, they also wanted to have the best players and to be winners. That wasn't going to be possible without spending more money, and lots of it.

Total losses for the 2009-10 campaign were going to exceed what was, at that time, the record single-season financial loss by a Premier League member club. That was previously set at £140m by Chelsea in 2006.

According to the ruling, that was a record that Manchester City's owners were adamant the club should not break.

And, not only that, but the club knew they would likely continue to suffer large losses for at least the following five seasons.

This was when both Uefa and the Premier League were about to bring in financial fair play rules, so it was clearly going to be a problem.

To address this, the only option was to significantly increase commercial revenue and reduce the reliance on their owners.

"The club made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the Premier League investigation," the independent commission's ruling continued.

It is another damning section which brings into question the integrity of undisclosed people associated with Manchester City.

The club served witness statements or documentary evidence from 24 individuals, most of whom who gave evidence at the hearing.

At present, no one has been named so we don't know the positions of the people the ruling referred to. However, it said the evidence given by a number of important factual witnesses "was false in a number of key respects".

The ruling also said that Manchester City knew their annual accounts "did not provide a true and fair view of the financial position" and the club "was reckless as to whether those annual accounts provided a true and fair view".

All of this, it was said, showed the club failed to act "with utmost good faith" and "breached duties of co-operation that it owed to the Premier League".

Read the full article here

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We asked for your views on the Premier League's confirmation that Manchester City have been found guilty of all charges related to breaches of financial rules between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons.

Here are some of your comments:

Steve: Nothing to see here, we won the trophies on the pitch not in the boardroom. We play as a team, not as over-rated individuals and prima donnas. I'm sure if you scrutinise every club up and down the land since time began there are questions to be answered, which City have openly done. The truth is nobody likes a winner, and we do that with bells on!!

Brian: It is hard to imagine how the players are feeling now, but as the appeal progresses, fans must now support the team with voices full of pride and encouragement. Man City will rise from the ashes. Man City are a team to continue to believe in.

Kevin: I find the whole situation ludicrous. A set of Premier League clubs don't like the idea of a new team breaking into their cartel, as it will affect the money they are making. They then try and punish a club's owners for putting money into the club and local community by changing the rules. I support the Man City club management and urge them to continue to take these charlatans on.

Flynn: As a City fan, I don't know how to feel as I want to have faith in the club, but seeing all the updates makes me feel uncertain about the future of Manchester City.

Colin: I feel sorry for the players. They weren't to know they were bought and paid through finances that weren't genuine and they went on the pitch and performed and won. So, while the club should be punished, don't tarnish the legacy of the players and managers.

Justin: I don't personally think they should lose their trophies, as talent and coaching by and large won those, but a demotion might be on the cards.

Sam: At the end of the day the owners have lied to us repeatedly and destroyed our club. For the club to move on it will need a change of ownership and removal of anyone involved in this. Sadly we will forever be tarnished by these events.

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Figures from across football, legal and politics have been reacting to the announcement from the Premier League of their verdict on the Manchester City charges, here is a selection of that reaction:

Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Lisa Nandy, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live: "It's very serious, it's hard to overstate how serious it is and the scale of the findings. It is important to say that Manchester City contest those findings and they have the right to a fair process, but the implications are serious if they are upheld and serious for football as a whole.

"For the sake of the fans, who need to have confidence in the integrity of the game, it's important that the Premier League concludes this process as swiftly as possible.

"We created the independent football regulator to put the fans back at the heart of the game. I do think it is right that we look at the rules that the Premier League sets itself to see if they are fit for purpose."

Stefan Borson, Head of Sport at law firm McCarthy Denning, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live: "I think the comments that are made about the witnesses by Manchester City are quite extraordinary [that they provided false evidence].

On what's next, he added: "I think it's relatively straight forward to be honest, if they fail the appeal the Independent Football Regulator will have things to say. And this will bring into question the roles of the directors inevitably, and I don't think there is much controversy there.

"The appeal will not be a re-trial or re-hearing, it will be a review of this decision in full. We do not have the full review, we have the edited highlights. It will be a review in front of a more senior set of judges, probably former Supreme Court Justices. City will focus in on the sponsorship payments. I think City will say the process and arrangement have been misunderstood by this independent commission."

Former Premier League winger Andros Townsend, speaking on the Monday Night Club: "We all want the right thing to be done, but I do worry about the integrity of the league if the past 10 years are wiped out all of a sudden.

"The Premier League would become a laughing stock, but obviously the right thing has to be done in a legal sense."

Read more reaction here

Pat Nevin
Former footballer and presenter

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The Premier League has opened a Pandora's box of problems which cannot be closed. However well-intentioned, however morally upright they mean to be, the way the product is perceived around the planet by fans will be negatively affected.

This looks like a gigantic mess, but could also become a bit of a joke, especially if they attempt to rewrite history, and change the winners' names on the Premier League and cup trophies over these past 15 years. I wouldn't want the engraver's job.

I believe financial rules brought in to prioritise financial sustainability were also aimed at limiting the money being spent by the clubs, especially the staggering, ever-inflating sums spent on sometimes fairly average players. It could lead to a de facto salary cap, which many fans would approve of.

The long-term problem for the league is easy to see here: if the top players are then offered significantly more money to play elsewhere, they will be off before you can say 'man on'.

I always thought the Premier League had taken a huge risk going down this regulatory road. As with Manchester City's future, nobody knows what the real long-term ramifications will be.

I have a suspicion it could end up being the greatest own goal in the sport's entire history.

The big take: If City are cast out of England's top leagues, what might the owners do – hang around the lower reaches, or find something else? Wasn't there the idea of a Super League? Keep that thought in the back of your mind.

Pat Nevin writes weekly in the Football Extra newsletter. If you're outside the UK and would like to receive it, sign up here.