Al Mubarak vows Manchester City will "prove its innocence" after Premier League guilty verdict

Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has insisted the club remains confident in clearing its name, following the announcement that the Premier League found the Etihad Stadium side guilty of the vast majority of the 115 financial rule-breaking charges brought against them.

City were accused of a wide range of breaches, with the case centring on claims they inflated sponsorship revenue from companies connected to the club's owners, alongside other alleged "off the books" payments designed to circumvent the Premier League's financial regulations. The verdict, first reported by The Athletic, has yet to be formally confirmed by the governing body, which has declined to comment.

In a letter published on the club's website, Al Mubarak acknowledged that supporters have been left answering awkward questions since the reports emerged. "Many of you will have spent your evening answering questions and responding to messages from friends, family and colleagues. So have I," he wrote, adding that his message to his own family was that the case still has a long way to run and that the club's resolve is unchanged.

The 51-year-old businessman has been chairman since City's takeover in 2008, a position that has seen him become one of the most powerful figures in English football. In the letter, he said there was a great deal he would like to explain to supporters in order to justify that confidence, but that the strict confidentiality of the legal process prevented him from doing so.

Even the letter itself was subject to scrutiny, with Al Mubarak revealing that it "underwent several legal checks" to ensure it complied with the rules governing the proceedings. That level of caution underlines how sensitive the situation has become for a club whose reputation and future league status remain in the balance.

Sanctions have not yet been announced, but the range of possible punishments has been widely trailed. City could face a points deduction, a fine of substantial size, or in the most extreme scenario, expulsion from the Premier League - an outcome that would reshape the domestic game in ways not seen since the creation of the Football League in 1888.

City have, however, been told by BBC Sport that they intend to appeal, and Premier League clubs are understood to be seeking legal advice about the possibility of compensation linked to the charges. Their interest is not merely theoretical: the reputational and sporting damage could have tangible financial consequences for rivals over the periods covered by the investigation.

Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme, football law expert Paul Gilroy KC described the case as a "seismic moment for world football", warning of consequences that stretch far beyond Manchester. Four clubs have already lodged protective claims, reserving the right to seek compensation if City are found guilty.

Purslow, who joined Gilroy on the programme, framed the issue in financial terms. He said the case raised a "where does this end?" question, because across the nine seasons now known to have been affected, all of City's 19 Premier League rivals in each of those campaigns suffered losses that are relatively easy to calculate.

He explained that every place in the table was worth roughly £3 million, meaning teams finishing fifth and missing out on Champions League football could have lost tens of millions of pounds. Even clubs that were relegated faced significant damage: a side finishing 18th would have finished 17th had City not been present, and the financial gap between those two positions is substantial.

"If you add all those claims up, over nine years, and that's just in the Premier League, you can see that the potential here for this to spiral out of control is huge," Purslow added, pointing to the compounding nature of any multi-club compensation claim.

The length of the road to this point is striking. The news came 1,327 days after City were charged by the Premier League in February 2023, following a four-year investigation, and 22 months after a hearing before an independent commission concluded. The club has consistently argued that the process has been anything but fair.

City declined to comment on whether they had been found guilty, instead issuing a statement saying: "Premier League process remains ongoing with significant elements to be completed, and subject to strict confidentiality." The club added that it 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" body.

Al Mubarak, meanwhile, pointed to a wider narrative, saying that while many observers have reached their own conclusions amid the "noise swirling around us", nothing has changed at the club. "We have faced challenges together before and have prevailed," he wrote, before adding that there remain many who want to "undermine the momentum of our club".

Whether that momentum survives will depend on the appeal, on the sanctions to be handed down, and on whether the Premier League can satisfy the many competing parties now circling the case. For now, the club's position is clear: it says it has done nothing wrong, and it intends to prove it.