🚨 Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano says “the whole Premier League case against us is based on a single false accusation”.
Also added “the independent commission issued an opinion that supports the Premier League's conspiracy theory”.
Full statement ⤵️
I want to share some information related to the ongoing disciplinary process between Manchester City and the Premier League. A document has been made public with an opinion of the Premier League commission that is negative to our interests. I want to explain exactly what this is, the next steps and how we are going to continue to defend the club and finally be vindicated in this process.
This has gone on for so long that it’s important to remind ourselves that the whole Premier League case against us is based on a single false accusation—that the owner's personal money was somehow and secretly put into the club via some sponsors from Abu Dhabi. This is just not true. Irrefutable evidence has been provided to the Premier League commission that shows it could not happen and that it did not happen. This includes bank statements, money transfers, witnesses and everything necessary to categorically demonstrate the money did not come from the owner.
Every other false charge that has been thrown at us and aggressively marketed and promoted comes from that simple, central, and completely false accusation.
Surprisingly for us and for our lawyers, after nearly two years, the Premier League commission has issued an opinion that supports the Premier League's conspiracy theory. To do so, the opinion had to actually ignore the extensive evidence provided by the club in order to reach a conclusion that is clearly wrong.
Our lawyers will now file an appeal that sets out that the opinion contains clear material errors of law, principle and fact and it is unsafe.
Remember we have been here before. In 2020 we were also wrongly ruled against for many of the same issues.
We appealed to an independent body in CAS and we won. We will now be relentless in our work. We will focus on the independent appeal process and also all other legal avenues available to us in order to win the case.
And we will take all necessary action to protect the club and seek compensation from any party that tries to damage it now and in the future.
I know this can be a bit of a distraction. But please remain focused on our business and taking care of our extended city family as we always do.
Please follow the normal protocols in referring to fan, partner, and media inquiries. Very soon, we will look back at this and recognize it as another time in our history when we dealt with adversity and overcame it together. Thank you."
🚨 More details from Premier League statement on Manchester City.
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 purpose of these schemes was found to have been to artificially inflate the club’s revenues, and reduce its costs, by more than £900 million during the affected period, to appear to comply with financial rules. The consequence of this, as the Commission found, was that the club filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators. The Commission concluded that ‘by its conduct the club clearly intended to circumvent the PL Rules‘.
As a result, Manchester City failed to accurately report its income and expenditure for the purposes of the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules and UEFA’s Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Rules. The Commission found that, had all of the relevant agreements been reported accurately in the club’s accounts, it would have been in breach of both the League’s and UEFA’s spending limits by a very substantial amount.
🚨 Rodri on Manchester City charges: “What we did, they cannot take it out of us. It's something that is not paid by money”.
“It's paid with effort, with partnership, with being shoulder to shoulder every day…”.
@BeanymanSports 🎥
🔵🔴 Barcelona make it 7️⃣ goals against Racing with 3️⃣3️⃣ goals scored in 7 games in all competitions!
Hat-trick for Raphinha, goal and two assists for Lamine, brace for Cancelo.
Who’s your Man of the Match?
🚨 OFFICIAL: Pro Ref confirm “an error of judgement” in Haaland’s goal — also informing Man United directly.
“Following the incident in the 60th minute of Sunday's Premier League fixture between Manchester United and Manchester City at Old Trafford, we can provide clarification regarding Erling Haaland’s awarded goal.
“The on-field decision was offside against Erling Haaland – that was checked by VAR and he was found to be in an onside position.
“In the same attack, it was established that Enzo Fernandez did not play the ball and therefore that makes any offside offence subjective, however, on this occasion, the VAR did not recognise the likely impact of his position and should have recommended an on-field review.
“Contact has been made with Manchester United this evening to acknowledge what we deem is an error of judgement. A review of the incident will take place.”