Manchester City are facing mounting demands for a criminal investigation into their financial conduct after the Premier League found the club guilty of cheating.
The Premier League, which operates the highest tier of the English football league system, has published an extraordinary independent verdict detailing how the club benefited from £900million in sham agreements. Manchester City, who maintain their innocence and plan to appeal against the decision, have been found guilty of the biggest cheating scandal in British sporting history.
The club is now expected to face incredibly severe sanctions beyond sporting and financial punishments, and the scale of their problems may multiply as prominent figures demand police involvement.
Lord Cruddas, a Conservative peer whose financial services company CMC Markets sponsors fellow Premier League club Everton, has argued that the matter must be passed to law enforcement. Peter Cruddas is a British businessman who founded the online trading firm and sits in the House of Lords. Everton are a professional football club based in Liverpool.
"Surely the Man City findings are now a police matter," Lord Cruddas told the Telegraph, a national British daily newspaper. "If accounts have been falsified and auditors have been misled then it is potentially a criminal matter."
Lord Cruddas added that company directors hold personal legal responsibility for financial misrepresentation.
"The auditors will call in the police, directors are personally liable for any fraud of a UK company even if it is foreign owned," he said.
David Bernstein, a British business executive who previously served as chairman of both Manchester City and the Football Association, has also stated that the case may "need to be looked at by outside authorities". The Football Association is the governing body of all amateur and professional football in England.
Disguised funding scheme
The independent panel appointed by the Premier League found that deals with sponsors were part of "a disguised funding scheme, whereby those companies were only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees".
According to the published verdict, the remaining money for these sponsorship arrangements was funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG). The Abu Dhabi United Group is a private investment company that owned the football club during the period in question, and is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family.
The independent panel discovered further sham arrangements that were also funded by ADUG. These agreements allowed Manchester City to record lower operating expenses than the club actually incurred.
The commission also highlighted an arrangement with Fordham, an entity that had purchased the image rights of the club's players. The panel found that this was a '"sham" circular arrangement' that was also funded by ADUG.
As a result of these practices, the independent panel concluded that the club had "filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators".
Supporters urge unity
The Citizens Trust, an official supporter group for the Manchester club, has released a statement urging fans to stay strong together in the face of the scandal engulfing the team. The Citizens Trust is a democratic organisation created by supporters to represent the interests of the fanbase.
"The Citizens Trust has read both the Premier League’s statement on the verdict which finds Manchester City guilty of the majority of the charges, and the Club’s statement in rebuttal that reiterates their innocence and intent to appeal," the group said.
"We are still digesting the full findings of the independent Commission, released by the PL in redacted format, and we encourage Blues to do the same," the statement continued.
The Citizens Trust held an emergency meeting with the Football Supporters' Association within an hour of the verdict dropping. The Football Supporters' Association is the national representative body for football fans in England and Wales.
The meeting was held to assist the group as they begin to consider their next steps, and what the verdict means for the trust, the City fanbase and the club going forward as they await the final outcomes of any sanctions and the appeal.
"We will also be engaging with our members and the wider fanbase as soon as possible," the trust stated. "This means consulting the membership, gauging opinion and holding an accessible meeting in Manchester city centre in the near future."
The supporter group concluded with a plea for solidarity among fans.
"We all need to look out for each other as supporters in these uncertain times ahead," the group said. "We need to be strong, together."
