The Premier League has accused Manchester City of allegedly breaching its Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations following a four-year investigation that opened in March 2019.

The charges relate to financial information regarding revenue, details of manager and player remuneration, UEFA regulations, profitability and sustainability and cooperation with Premier League investigations.

In a statement, the league said alleged breaches were committed across nine different seasons beginning in September of 2009-10 to 2017-18 and that the breaches will be referred to an independent commission.

“In accordance with Premier League Rule W.82.1, the Premier League confirms that it has today [February 6 2023] referred a number of alleged breaches of the Premier League Rules by Manchester City Football Club (Club) to a commission under Premier League Rule W.3.4,” the Premier League said in a statement.

“Commissions are independent of the Premier League and member clubs.

“The members of the commission will be appointed by the independent chair of the Premier League judicial panel, in accordance with Premier League rules W.19, W.20 and W.26.

“The proceedings before the commission will, in accordance with Premier League rule W.82, be confidential and heard in private.

“Under Premier League rule W.82.2, the commission’s final award will be published on the Premier League’s website.

“This confirmation is made in accordance with Premier League rule W.82.1.

“The Premier League will be making no further comment in respect of this matter until further notice.”

Under the Premier League law, should Man City be found guilty, they would face a range of potential sanctions including a points deduction and expulsion.

City are yet to comment but reports suggest that they are prepared to ‘robustly’ defend themselves. 

This won’t be the first time that Manchester City are in the news for the wrong reasons.

Back in 2020, City were banned from the Champions League and fined £ 25 million after UEFA had ruled that City committed “serious breaches” of Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations between 2012 and 2016.

The club denied in the strongest possible terms that they had entered into a conspiracy with their sponsors Etihad Airways and Etisalat, insisting that a total of 5.5m emails were stolen from them.

Having listened to City’s line of argument, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned City’s two-year ban from European club competitions and reduced the club’s fine to £8.96m as the majority of the panel found that UEFA’s allegation that sponsorship income had been inflated was not proven.

CAS had explained that the ban was overturned because “most of the alleged breaches reported were either not established or time-barred.”