Manchester City face near-£50m legal bill after guilty verdict

Manchester City could be ordered to pay almost £50m towards the Premier League's legal costs after being found guilty of financial rule breaches.

The bill follows an eight-year case that is still not finished. City say they will appeal. Legal experts predict the two sides ran up more than £100m in combined costs, according to reporting by The Guardian.

An independent commission, a panel set up outside the clubs to decide the case, found City guilty of virtually all the charges brought by the league. In a 40-page document, it ruled the club had artificially inflated its income by £900m over a nine-year period.

The panel said City arranged "sham" contracts to boost revenues. That mattered because of spending rules, the limits on how much clubs can lose and spend on players and wages. The serious breaches covered the period between 2009 and 2018.

City were cleared on only one minor count. The panel found them guilty of all charges relating to serious breaches, and of the majority of charges relating to a failure to cooperate with the investigation.

Now comes the fight over who pays. The Premier League's own legal costs are expected to be upwards of £70m. Lawyers told The Guardian a winning party can usually expect to recover around 70% of its costs from the loser. That points to a payment of almost £50m from City to the league.

For fans, this means the football is over for now, but the paperwork is not. The sums dwarf anything seen before in English football. After Everton were found guilty of financial breaches in 2024, the league asked for £4.9m in costs and was awarded £1.7m.

The scale of this case was different. City instructed Lord Pannick KC, one of Britain's best-known barristers, KC meaning King's Counsel, a senior advocate. The league's team was led by Adam Smith KC. Eight years of hearings, evidence and argument built the bill.

City are not accepting the verdict. Chief executive Ferran Soriano sent a three-minute video message to club staff in which he described the ruling as a "Premier League conspiracy theory".

What makes this stand out is the length of the shadow it casts. Supporters who packed stadiums for title races and last-minute winners now wait on lawyers and appeal panels. The noise of the cage and the streetlights feels a long way from £900m sponsorship disputes and £70m legal bills.

The appeal process will decide what happens next. Until then, the result on the pitch stands alongside a ruling off it, and a costs claim that could reshape how the league polices its clubs.