Manchester City verdict: 'all charges', say the Guardian, RTÉ and TheJournal.ie; 'majority of 115', says The Independent
An independent commission has found that Manchester City broke Premier League financial rules from 2009-10 to 2017-18. Reports differ on how many charges were upheld and on how much money was involved. Penalties will be set at a separate hearing.
The verdict. The Premier League's statement has two parts. It says City were guilty of "all charges" on the financial rules. It also says they were guilty of "the majority" of the charges of failing to co-operate with the investigation. The Independent printed the statement in full. It says three of the four co-operation charges were upheld. Most headlines carried only one half.
| Outlet | What it led with |
|---|---|
| The Guardian | "all Premier League charges" |
| RTÉ News | "all charges" |
| TheJournal.ie | "all Premier League charges" |
| The Independent, lead report | "majority of 115 charges" |
| The Independent, explainer | "almost all" of 115 |
| The Guardian, Rooney report | "more than a hundred charges" |
The money. Four outlets give the league's figure: over nine seasons, sham deals inflated revenue and cut costs by "more than £900m". TheJournal.ie's headline calls it "€1bn of inflated revenue", but its body says revenue and costs. The Independent gives a second figure: income "hugely overstated by over £830m" across eight seasons. No report explains how the two figures relate.
The appeal. City say they will appeal. Every report that gives a date says Friday 2 October. The Independent's "14 days" is the length of the appeal window, not a different deadline.
Not settled. The penalty is not settled. The Guardian lists points, fines and titles as options. The sanction hearing will be private. We do not hold the commission's full written decision.
This story is about whether Manchester City, England's most successful football club of the past 15 years, won its trophies while breaking the league's financial rules.
How it got here. In 2008 Sheikh Mansour, a member of Abu Dhabi's ruling family, bought City through Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG). The club won the Premier League three times between 2009 and 2018, and five more titles between 2019 and 2024, The Independent reports.
The Premier League opened an investigation in December 2018. In February 2020, UEFA, European football's governing body, banned City from its competitions for two years over similar claims. The Court of Arbitration for Sport lifted the ban five months later. It found most of the allegations either not established or too old to prosecute under UEFA's five-year limit. The Premier League has no such limit. In February 2023 it referred 115 charges to an independent commission. The hearing ran from September to December 2024.
The actors. The Premier League is England's top division, run by and for its 20 member clubs. Its financial rules cap how much money a club may lose. The league's case is that City disguised money from its owner as sponsorship income so that its accounts appeared to stay within those limits. City deny any wrongdoing. The commission is a panel appointed under the league's own rules. It is not a court.
What is at stake. Other clubs finished behind City in seasons now found to have broken the rules. The Guardian lists points deductions, fines and the removal of titles as possible penalties. The case also tests whether a league can police a club whose owner is tied to a state.
Where it stands. The decision was published on 29 September 2026, 21 months after the hearing ended. No penalty has been set. City have until Friday 2 October to appeal. The Independent reports that an appeal would go to a new three-person panel whose decision is final, and that any sanction would wait until the appeal is over.
What is being argued about
- Whether City were guilty of all the charges or most of them
- £900m of inflated revenue and cut costs, or £830m of overstated income
- City's appeal and the Friday 2 October deadline
- What penalties could follow, including the loss of titles
Claims and verdicts
The Guardian
The Guardian
🇬🇧UK ·
newspaper · independent
Manchester City found guilty on all Premier League charges over rule breaches
Open this report in The AI Times →
Read it at The Guardian →
What we have measured
Actor named Denial in the passive voice, with no one named as the person who dismissed it ×1Actor named names Israel as acting and states the death toll flat, with no source ×1Actor named Ireland named as the side that ended the conference ×1Allegation omitted the police statement is cut with an ellipsis where the other two reports carry the controlling or coercive behaviour allegation ×1
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R
RTÉ News
Premier League confirms Man City guilty of all charges
Open this report in The AI Times →
Read it at RTÉ News →
What we have measured
Abstraction as the actor the dispute acts and no one in it is named ×1Account taken as default the police description of the crowd as 'hostile' is carried with no other account ×1Accuracy the Slovenia entry in the country list repeats Austria's name ×1Active voice offender Donaldson is named as the one who did the abuse, in the active voice. ×1
Outlet profile in The AI Times →
T
TheJournal.ie
'Sham' deals and €1bn of inflated revenue: Man City found guilty on all Premier League charges
Open this report in The AI Times →
Read it at TheJournal.ie →
What we have measured
Accuracy of attribution The report calls the Tánaiste the Taoiseach partway through. That puts his words under another office. ×1Accusation carried without a reply a charge against a named party, no answer from it in the text held ×1Actor labelling calls the accusers 'opposition parties' when the named accuser is the deputy First Minister ×1Actor mislabelled The first line calls the accusers 'opposition parties', but the accuser quoted is the DUP deputy First Minister, who sits in the same executive ×1
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The Independent
The Independent
🇬🇧UK ·
digital · independent
The Independent
The Independent
🇬🇧UK ·
digital · independent
The Guardian
The Guardian
🇬🇧UK ·
newspaper · independent
Manchester City found guilty on all Premier League charges over rule breaches
Open this report in The AI Times →
Read it at The Guardian →
What we have measured
Actor named Denial in the passive voice, with no one named as the person who dismissed it ×1Actor named names Israel as acting and states the death toll flat, with no source ×1Actor named Ireland named as the side that ended the conference ×1Allegation omitted the police statement is cut with an ellipsis where the other two reports carry the controlling or coercive behaviour allegation ×1
Outlet profile in The AI Times →
R
RTÉ News
Premier League confirms Man City guilty of all charges
Open this report in The AI Times →
Read it at RTÉ News →
What we have measured
Abstraction as the actor the dispute acts and no one in it is named ×1Account taken as default the police description of the crowd as 'hostile' is carried with no other account ×1Accuracy the Slovenia entry in the country list repeats Austria's name ×1Active voice offender Donaldson is named as the one who did the abuse, in the active voice. ×1
Outlet profile in The AI Times →
T
TheJournal.ie
'Sham' deals and €1bn of inflated revenue: Man City found guilty on all Premier League charges
Open this report in The AI Times →
Read it at TheJournal.ie →
What we have measured
Accuracy of attribution The report calls the Tánaiste the Taoiseach partway through. That puts his words under another office. ×1Accusation carried without a reply a charge against a named party, no answer from it in the text held ×1Actor labelling calls the accusers 'opposition parties' when the named accuser is the deputy First Minister ×1Actor mislabelled The first line calls the accusers 'opposition parties', but the accuser quoted is the DUP deputy First Minister, who sits in the same executive ×1
Outlet profile in The AI Times →
The Independent
The Independent
🇬🇧UK ·
digital · independent
The Independent
The Independent
🇬🇧UK ·
digital · independent
The Independent
The Independent
🇬🇧UK ·
digital · independent
The Independent
The Independent
🇬🇧UK ·
digital · independent
Premier League confirms Man City guilty of all charges
Open this report in The AI Times →
Read it at RTÉ News →
What we have measured
Abstraction as the actor the dispute acts and no one in it is named ×1Account taken as default the police description of the crowd as 'hostile' is carried with no other account ×1Accuracy the Slovenia entry in the country list repeats Austria's name ×1Active voice offender Donaldson is named as the one who did the abuse, in the active voice. ×1
Outlet profile in The AI Times →
The Guardian
The Guardian
🇬🇧UK ·
newspaper · independent
Manchester City found guilty on all Premier League charges over rule breaches
Open this report in The AI Times →
Read it at The Guardian →
What we have measured
Actor named Denial in the passive voice, with no one named as the person who dismissed it ×1Actor named names Israel as acting and states the death toll flat, with no source ×1Actor named Ireland named as the side that ended the conference ×1Allegation omitted the police statement is cut with an ellipsis where the other two reports carry the controlling or coercive behaviour allegation ×1
Outlet profile in The AI Times →
Who wrote it
The Independent · 2 reports on this story
The Independent
The Independent · 2 reports on this story
The Independent · 2 reports on this story
The Guardian
The Guardian
Coverage, outlet by outlet
The Independent
The Independent
🇬🇧UK ·
digital · independent
The Independent
The Independent
🇬🇧UK ·
digital · independent
The Independent
The Independent
🇬🇧UK ·
digital · independent
'Sham' deals and €1bn of inflated revenue: Man City found guilty on all Premier League charges
Open this report in The AI Times →
Read it at TheJournal.ie →
What we have measured
Accuracy of attribution The report calls the Tánaiste the Taoiseach partway through. That puts his words under another office. ×1Accusation carried without a reply a charge against a named party, no answer from it in the text held ×1Actor labelling calls the accusers 'opposition parties' when the named accuser is the deputy First Minister ×1Actor mislabelled The first line calls the accusers 'opposition parties', but the accuser quoted is the DUP deputy First Minister, who sits in the same executive ×1
Outlet profile in The AI Times →
—
The Independent
The Independent
🇬🇧UK ·
digital · independent
The Independent
The Independent
🇬🇧UK ·
digital · independent
The Independent
The Independent
🇬🇧UK ·
digital · independent
The Independent
The Independent
🇬🇧UK ·
digital · independent
The Guardian
The Guardian
🇬🇧UK ·
newspaper · independent
Manchester City found guilty on all Premier League charges over rule breaches
Open this report in The AI Times →
Read it at The Guardian →
What we have measured
Actor named Denial in the passive voice, with no one named as the person who dismissed it ×1Actor named names Israel as acting and states the death toll flat, with no source ×1Actor named Ireland named as the side that ended the conference ×1Allegation omitted the police statement is cut with an ellipsis where the other two reports carry the controlling or coercive behaviour allegation ×1
Outlet profile in The AI Times →
— independent
The Guardian
The Guardian
🇬🇧UK ·
newspaper · independent
Premier League confirms Man City guilty of all charges
Open this report in The AI Times →
Read it at RTÉ News →
What we have measured
Abstraction as the actor the dispute acts and no one in it is named ×1Account taken as default the police description of the crowd as 'hostile' is carried with no other account ×1Accuracy the Slovenia entry in the country list repeats Austria's name ×1Active voice offender Donaldson is named as the one who did the abuse, in the active voice. ×1
Outlet profile in The AI Times →
— PUBLIC
ABC News (Australia)
ABC News (Australia)
🇦🇺AU ·
public broadcaster · public-service
What we have measured
Actor label and hedge The same man is called 'far-right' and named by his legal name. The act is hedged with 'allegedly', where the longer report states it flat. ×1A different count, stated flat one dead and 140 missing, unattributed, earliest of the four ×1Affected counted The only report to count the local people affected ×1Are the dead named one of the dead named, through a relative at the hospital ×1
Outlet profile in The AI Times →
C
CBC News
BBC News
BBC News
🇬🇧UK ·
public broadcaster · public-service
What we have measured
Dating and attribution 'It was not until Tuesday' is a judgement about delay, not a date. No other report we hold comments on how long the German finding took. ×1How hard the claim is stated Headline says the UN voted to adopt and replace; the last sentence of the report says the vote is non-binding ×1How hard the claim is stated The qualification arrives in the last sentence and is immediately overridden by an effect the report gives no source for. ×1Which figure is used States the replacement as done — the Assembly voted to replace the map — where the resolution urges states to use a different projection. ×1
Outlet profile in The AI Times →
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
🇬🇧UK ·
newspaper · independent
What we have measured
Outlet profile in The AI Times →
The Times
The Times
🇬🇧UK ·
newspaper · independent
What we have measured
Outlet profile in The AI Times →