Manchester City, more trouble: opposition players seek financial compensation for sporting targets and missed bonuses

The rival players and their representatives have contacted several lawyers to pursue financial claims.

Manchester City were found guilty of 114 of the 115 alleged financial breaches, as announced by the Premier League, which then clarified that the Manchester club were also guilty of most of the charges relating to their failure to co-operate with the League's investigation into the matter. They now risk facing action from opposing players who have come up against the Citizens over the years. According to what Sky Sports News has learned, rival players and their representatives have contacted various lawyers over possible financial claims against the club, to recover potential bonuses they missed out on, whether for losing a title or European qualification.

The fictitious agreements

The statement shows that, during the period under examination, Manchester City entered into fictitious commercial agreements with several sponsors as part of a concealed financing system under which the companies paid only part of the amounts set out in the sponsorship contracts. ADUG, the company that owns the club, funded the remaining amount. As part of that system, the club also concluded other fictitious agreements, funded by ADUG, to allow the club to record operating expenses lower than those actually incurred, as well as a fictitious circular agreement with Fordham, an entity that purchased the image rights of the club's players, funded by ADUG.

Administrative doping

The purpose of these stratagems by the club was to artificially inflate the club’s revenues and reduce its costs by more than £900 million during the period in question, in order to appear compliant with financial regulations. As the Commission established, this meant the club submitted falsified accounts and concealed the real financial situation from the auditors and football’s regulatory bodies. The Commission concluded that "through its conduct, the club clearly intended to circumvent the Premier League’s rules".

The requests of the opposing players

Specifically, the Premier League statement reads: "The independent commission found that between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons: Manchester City entered into 'fictitious' contracts (which misrepresented the true agreement between the parties) with various commercial partners, and also made use of 'fictitious' agreements with others, in order to artificially inflate the club's revenues and reduce their costs; the club submitted falsified accounts and concealed the true financial situation from the auditors and football's regulatory bodies; Manchester City significantly breached the spending limits of both the Premier League and UEFA; during the Premier League investigation, Manchester City committed multiple breaches of their obligations of co-operation and utmost good faith towards the League (three of the four alleged breaches were confirmed)". Fresh trouble now awaits, with financial claims from those who competed with City during those years and saw sporting and financial targets slip away because of the Manchester club's administrative doping.