Ben Croucher
BBC Sport journalist on the BBC News Channel

The Premier League want to act decisively and show that there is a real cost to the actions that Manchester City have undertaken but they also need to protect the integrity of their competition as well.

If they stripped Manchester City of their titles during that period that would look very bad for the Premier League. If they kicked out one of their biggest clubs, that would look very bad on the Premier League.

There is a very fine line that the Premier League will need to tread over the course of the next few months and the next few weeks potentially.

You suspect all of that will wait with Manchester City signalling their intention to appeal.

Manchester City

• November 2018: Football Leaks allegations emerge with Der Spiegel publishing claims Manchester City breached financial fair play rules.
• March 2019: Uefa launches a formal investigation off the back of Der Spiegel's findings.
• May 2019: City criticise the investigation and launch an appeal process.
• November 2019: The Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) deems City's appeal inadmissible.
• February 2020: Uefa announces a two-year ban for City from European competitions and a €30m fine.
• July 2020: City's European ban is overturned after an appeal to Cas.
• July 2021: City lose a jurisdiction ruling that allows the media to report the Premier League is continuing to investigate the champions for alleged financial breaches.
• April 2022: Der Spiegel publishes a fresh report claiming the Premier League has been investigating the club for three years, providing detailed claims.
• February 2023: The Premier League charges City with 115 financial breaches.
• September 2024: The start of a 10-week hearing between the Premier League and City on the 115 charges.
• February 2025: City manager Pep Guardiola says the club expect to learn the verdict "within one month". Guardiola left the Etihad at the end of last season.
• 25 September 2026: Reports emerge that a verdict has been reached, with sources telling the BBC that City have been found guilty of breaking the majority of the charges.
• 29 September 2026: Premier League releases its findings via an independent commission and confirms the guilty verdicts.

Ben Croucher
BBC Sport journalist on the BBC News Channel

The Premier League has four or five options available to them in terms of sanctions.

They have a reprimand which would essentialy equate to a slap on the wrist - you suspect that that many not happen in a case as severe as this.

They could issue a heavy fine which you suspect would come in to play and indeed many of the Premier League clubs, we know, have been investigating legal avenues to explore lost revenues as a case of Manchester City's conduct during this period.

They could receive points deductions, whether that be retrospectively or coming into future seasons as well.

They could also be kicked out of the Premier League entirely, they could be hit with a transfer ban too.

All of these options are available to the Premier League but right now we do not know how they are going to act. We know they want to act swiftly but the Premier League are in a very difficult position.

Manchester City

If Manchester City fail in their appeal and are removed from the Premier League, where will Erling Haaland be playing next season?

Image source, Getty Images

Former Manchester City chairman David Bernstein on Radio 5 Live: "It is damming beyond belief. My immediate thoughts are, should the board continue? Should the people involved be suspended immediately?

"Very, very serious. I think it's really terrible. There's a school of thought with lawyers that is deny, deny, deny, but this is a football club that is part of a league and the whole credibility of the league is at stake here.

"I would go as far [to stay it is a deep-seated form of fraud] and if it is, I'm not a lawyer but as a thought this is something so serious that it goes beyond the football authorities.

"The sanctions cannot just be financial, so it's got to be way beyond that. If the appeal fails, Manchester City cannot stay in the league, they have to suffer. And I say that as a supporter and a fan."

Manchester City

Image source, Getty Images

The question everyone wants to know: will Manchester City be allowed to remain in the Premier League after this?

Kieran Maguire
Football finance expert on X

The Premier League commission accuses some witnesses of giving false evidence and being dishonest.

Mark Ogden
Senior writer for ESPN on X

The wording of the Premier League statement is so brutal that if Manchester City fail to win their appeal, the sanctions will be enormous.

Read the statement here., external

This is a complex story - one that could define this Premier League era - with a lot of key players and a lot of complicated information.

For the full story on the 115 charges, what has happened, who is involved and everything else you need to know, head over to our in depth piece here.

Premier League

Image source, Getty Images

In relation to the 'sham' contracts, the Premier League statement says:

"The independent Commission found that Manchester City arranged ‘sham’ commercial deals with a number of its sponsors during the period, which were part of a disguised funding scheme, whereby those companies were only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees. The remainder was funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club. As part of the scheme, further ‘sham’ arrangements, funded by ADUG, were entered into to enable the club to record lower operating expenses than it actually incurred, as well as a ‘sham’ circular arrangement with Fordham, an entity that purchased the club’s players’ image rights, that was funded by ADUG.

"The purpose of these schemes was found to have been to artificially inflate the club’s revenues, and reduce its costs, by more than £900 million during the affected period, to appear to comply with financial rules. The consequence of this, as the Commission found, was that the club filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators. The Commission concluded that 'by its conduct the club clearly intended to circumvent the PL Rules'."

The sham commercial deals were described as being part of a "disguised funding scheme" to the scale of £830.69m.

Tony Pulis
Former Stoke City manager and BBC Sport columnist

When do we get our FA Cup?

That is what all Stoke City fans have been asking me since the news broke on Friday that Manchester City had been found guilty of breaking the majority of the 115 financial rules they have been accused of breaching.

I thought exactly the same.

While the process is far from over because Manchester City are expected to appeal, I have to say this verdict and the whole situation has left a very sour taste in my mouth.

Taking my Stoke side to the 2011 FA Cup final was one of the highlights - if not THE highlight - of my 50 years in football as a player and manager.

That day in May will also live long in the memory of all Stoke fans who followed their team to Wembley dreaming that they would win the greatest club cup competition in world football for the first time in their long history.

The club we were playing, Manchester City, were on their way to dominating English football.

At that time they had not won a major trophy for 35 years but they were a team that, in transfer fees and wages, cost well above anything Stoke City could ever aspire to.

Read more from Pulis here.

BBC News Channel

Lisa Nandy, the Culture, Media and Sport secretary, has been speaking to the BBC News Channel.

"It’s incredibly serious, the Premier League report is incredibly stark," she said.

"Manchester City have the right to appeal. This is causing a lot of concern for City fans and all fans of Premier League football."

You can watch reaction on the BBC News Channel live at the top of this page now.

Manchester City

According to the Premier League, Manchester City have the right to appeal the independent commission’s findings and have until Friday, 2 October to exercise that right.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, Getty Images

On BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club, former Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart said: "I've heard everyone else go down every single rabbit hole, every single wormhole, every single discussion.

"My honest opinion is I've got no reason not to trust Khaldoon Al Mubarak (club chairman). What he said is enough for me.

"I loved how he spoke. I loved the letter because that was from someone who cared about the club."

Read more here: Hart trusts Man City chair Al Mubarak over ruling.

Manchester City

It's the international break, of course, but Manchester City's next Premier League game is away at Liverpool on 11 October (16:30 BST).

Then back-to-back home games against Paris St-Germain in the Champions League on 14 October (20:00 BST) followed by Ipswich Town in the Premier League three days later.

Will City fans boo the Premier League anthem against Ipswich?

Premier League

The independent Commission found that between Seasons 2009-10 and 2017-18:

• Manchester City arranged ‘sham’ contracts (which misrepresented the true agreement between the parties) with a number of its commercial partners, as well as relying on ‘sham’ agreements with others, to artificially inflate the club’s revenues and reduce its costs
• The club filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators
• Manchester City was significantly in breach of both the Premier League’s and Uefa’s spending limits
• During the Premier League’s investigation, Manchester City committed multiple breaches of its duties of co-operation and utmost good faith towards the League (three of the four alleged breaches were upheld)

We'll break all those things down for you with the statement from the Premier League.

Manchester City

Manchester City have responded to the Premier League statement with a statement of their own:

"Manchester City FC is both disappointed and surprised by the opinion of the Premier League Commission, that has been published today.

"The Club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions, relating to this case. The Club will therefore be relentless, and where necessary proactive, in any and all appropriate regulatory and legal forums.

"The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements uncompleted. Manchester City FC will now pursue the appeal avenues open to it, on the basis that the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe.

"The Club has diligently respected due process for eight years on the basis that the Premier League Board and Executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from partisan influence.

"The Club is obviously restricted in what it can say further until all future proceedings are complete."

Premier League

Richard Masters, chief executive of the Premier League, said: "The core decision establishes the facts of what happened at Manchester City during this period. It details how the club systematically broke Premier League rules for nearly a decade.

"It also vindicates the Premier League's decision to pursue this case against Manchester City. While the process to date has been both long and difficult, the League has remained determined that the facts be established independently.

"It is a key responsibility of the Premier League to ensure that the rules, approved by the clubs themselves, are upheld to protect the integrity of the competition. It is paramount that the League remains competitive and fair for all clubs and for the fans. We take that role extremely seriously."

Manchester City

Image source, Getty Images

They also found Manchester City guilty of all charges except one relating to non-cooperation with the Premier League investigation.

The sham commercial deals were described as being part of a "disguised funding scheme" to the scale of £830.69m.

In the past few minutes the Premier League has confirmed that Manchester City have been found guilty of all charges related to breaches of Premier League financial rules between 2009-10 and 2017-18.

An independent Commission found that during that time period, the club arranged "sham contracts" with a number of its commercial partners, as well as "relying on sham agreements to artificially inflate the club's revenues and reduce its costs".

The statement also said that City were guilty of the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate.

The Premier League published a redacted version of the commission's report, which said the charges "concerned well over 100 alleged individual breaches of Premier League Rules across four broad charge categories".