Manchester City Found Guilty on All Premier League Charges

Manchester City have been found guilty on all charges brought by the Premier League over breaches of its financial rules, a ruling that landed on the same day Sydney hosted the launch of the new A-League season and quickly overshadowed it.

An independent panel concluded City used "sham contracts" over a nine-year period to boost their income by more than £900m. The club deny the charges and intend to appeal, arguing the panel's opinion "contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe".

The Australian Professional Leagues, which has run the A-Leagues since 2020, confirmed at the Sydney launch that it has never investigated Melbourne City, the Australian club that sits inside Manchester City's ownership group, but said it would now look at what the Premier League panel found.

"We haven't had a chance to review that, so we'll do that now and consider its findings, and we note that legal process is ongoing," said the APL chief executive, Steve Rosich.

The overlap runs deeper than shared ownership. Simon Pearce sits on Manchester City's board, serves as vice-chair of Melbourne City and also holds a seat on the APL board, having been a central figure in the 2020 shift to the A-Leagues' club-owned model. The England-born Pearce is based in Sydney.

City Football Group's portfolio extends to 12 clubs, among them New York City FC, ninth in Major League Soccer on 33 points from 27 games, and Japan's Yokohama F. Marinos.

Australia's senior team played the same week, going down 4-2 to Brazil in a friendly, with a full breakdown of that match available on our site (match report).

If the Premier League findings are upheld on appeal, the APL's review of Melbourne City may draw fresh scrutiny to how closely a board member of the sanctioned club is woven into running Australia's own league.