Manchester City’s 115 Premier League charges: Rodri cites club’s 2020 UEFA victory

LONDON — Manchester City faces 115 alleged breaches of Premier League financial regulations in an unprecedented proceeding before an independent commission. Midfielder Rodri has defended the club’s record and said its players trust the executives who maintain they did nothing wrong.

The league brought the charges in February 2023 after a four-year investigation. They cover nine seasons, from 2009–10 through 2017–18, following the Abu Dhabi United Group’s acquisition of City in 2008. An independent commission convened in London in late 2024 to hear both sides in private.

Speaking ahead of Spain’s UEFA Nations League fixture against England at Wembley Stadium, Rodri said the proceedings could not erase what City’s players achieved. The club won three Premier League titles, three League Cups, one FA Cup and one FA Community Shield during the nine-season period covered by the core financial allegations.

“What we did, they cannot take out of us,” Rodri said regarding the potential impact on the club’s historical record. “It’s something that is not paid by money. It’s paid with effort, with the damage, with being shoulder to shoulder every day. Everything was deserved, and I’m glad that I could live one of the best eras of English football in here.”

The charges fall into five categories: 54 counts of failing to provide accurate financial information on revenue, sponsorship deals and operating costs; 14 of failing to provide full details of player and manager remuneration, including contract arrangements for former manager Roberto Mancini; five of failing to comply with UEFA Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations; seven of breaching Premier League Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR); and 35 of failing to cooperate with league investigations between 2018 and 2023.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham urged observers not to reach conclusions before reading the commission’s written findings. “I would have to look at the report of the independent commission, and people shouldn’t jump to those kinds of conclusions,” Burnham said. “I know this has been a long process between the club and the Premier League. I think it has been quite a contested process. So I don’t think it’s as simple as jumping to conclusions. I think we would all need to study the independent commission’s report in some considerable detail before reaching any conclusions.”

Rodri pointed to City’s previous case against European football’s governing body, UEFA. In February 2020, UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body imposed a two-year ban from European club competitions and a €30 million fine after finding that City had overstated sponsorship revenue between 2012 and 2016. In July that year, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, overturned the ban and cut the fine to €10 million, ruling that many alleged breaches were either unestablished or time-barred under UEFA’s five-year statute of limitations.

“They always express the confidence that they never did something wrong and we believe in that,” Rodri said of City’s executives. “Until the moment they are proved wrong, we will believe the club. They always tell us the confidence they have on the innocence.”

“We had the example of 2020 that the process was the same and at the end nothing happened,” he said. “There as well in the first instance we were found guilty, but we believed in the club and the innocence that the club maintained and in the end we ended up acquitted. So, I believe in the justice system, and I believe in the innocence of the club.”

Under Premier League Rule W.51, the commission can impose penalties if charges are proven, ranging from fines and reprimands to point deductions, match replays or expulsion from the league. Its decision will be subject to an appeal under Premier League regulations before an appellate panel, extending the case’s final resolution.