Manchester City guilty: where £1.2bn in transfers went
Manchester City knowingly broke the Premier League's financial rules on a massive scale, an independent commission has ruled.
The commission found the club guilty of all charges relating to serious breaches, the league confirmed in a statement published on 29 September. Premier League
The case centred on sham contracts with commercial partners. They were used to disguise secret funding, inflate revenue and understate costs. BBC Sport
Reuters reported the scheme was funded by Abu Dhabi United and ran over a nine-year period. Reuters
The financial rules in question set limits on losses and require clubs to file honest accounts. The commission concluded City inflated its accounts by more than £900 million. The ruling on inflated sponsorship income was set out in a 40-page document.
BBC Sport reported City's £1.2bn transfer spending coincided with £830m in inflated sponsorships. BBC Sport
The money travelled far. Between summer 2009 and winter 2018, City spent roughly £1.2 billion on players. About £900 million of that was net spend, which means total spent minus total received for sales. It was more than any other club in that period. BBC Sport
That list covers senior players for whom a fee was paid. It excludes free transfers, loans and academy graduates.
In total, City paid fees to 46 different clubs. Those clubs spanned 19 national league systems.
Just over a quarter of the outlay went to clubs in the English top flight. City bought from eight Premier League clubs in that window.
Spain was the next biggest source. City signed players from eight La Liga clubs. Only £13 million went on two players from the Championship, England's second tier.
One deal shows how a big sale can reshape the seller. Wolfsburg sold Kevin De Bruyne to City in 2015. The German club then dropped from second to eighth in the Bundesliga. It narrowly avoided relegation in the next two seasons.
Wolfsburg used about half the De Bruyne fee to sign winger Julian Draxler in 2016. He did not fill the gap.
Other clubs sought legal advice over the City charges before the verdict, as they waited to learn what punishment might follow.
What makes this stand out for supporters is the scale and the spread. Ninety minutes bring strangers together. The bills behind them are usually invisible. Here they are laid bare, club by club, league by league.
