TEverything goes back to December 2018. As the Premier League has explained in its statement, the investigation into Manchester City began at that time… but it goes back to practically the entire previous decade. It was a month earlier, in November, when the German media ‘Der Spiegel’ published documents related to ‘Football Leaks’ that splashed Manchester City, and in what way.
Over the course of a week, the German newspaper stated that the majority shareholder and owner of Manchester City, Sheikh Mansour (a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family and also Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates) had been secretly increasing the English club’s income through “inflated deals” with Emirati sponsors. As ‘Der Spiegel’ explained, all the sponsors had a close link with the Emirati government.
Sheikh Mansour, present at a Manchester City match.
In addition, this April, ‘Der Spiegel’ published that “the holding company behind Manchester City appears to have broken the rules by paying millions in fees to players’ agents and also orchestrated a secret triangular deal to sign an underage player.”
Mansour’s reasons
As reported by ‘The Athletic’ in an analysis published now, Mansour’s idea was to “prevent free-spending Manchester City from exceeding UEFA’s limit for losses allowed between 2012 and 2016”. In addition to sponsorships, costs were hidden, such as the salary of the club’s then coach, the Italian Roberto Mancini, as well as the payment of image rights to soccer players.
Mansour’s idea was to prevent free-spending Manchester City from exceeding UEFA’s limit for losses allowed between 2012 and 2016.”
Manchester City’s reaction was quick at the time. They denounced that the documents had been “criminally obtained.” The Manchester team has always denied having acted illegallyand “claimed that the attacks are part of a deliberate attempt to tarnish City’s reputation,” details ‘The Athletic’.
City fans receive their team bus.
Roberto Mancini’s secret contract
An issue that may turn out to be crucial in this whole topic is Roberto Mancini’s secret contract. Among the documents uncovered by the journalistic investigation Football Leaks, The mirror revealed that the Italian coach had received payments through a fictitious employment contract as a consultant for the Al Jazeera club. This contract meant an income of 1,900,000 euros in addition to the one million six hundred that he had as a base salary as City manager.
As reported The Timesthe company of the Italian coach, Italy Internacinal Services issued quarterly invoices to Manchester City paid by the Abu Dhabi United Group to the coach through Al Jazira.
The City already was condemned… and ‘saved’
But this is by no means the first time that Manchester City has been under suspicion. In February 2020, UEFA sanctioned the club with two years without being able to participate in European competitions for violating the Financial Fair Play by presenting irregularities in its sponsorship income. In addition, they received a fine of 30 million euros. It was basically the monitoring and condemnation of what he had denounced The mirror two years before.
The UEFA Club Financial Control Body found Manchester City guilty of misrepresenting his accounts to a sum of more than £200 million and not to cooperate with the financial control bodies of European football.
The case lasted several months, until the European Court of Arbitration decided in July 2020 to lift the sanction and reduce the fine to less than 10 million euros, despite nine Premier League clubs, including Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, asking the court not to relent.
The Etihad Stadium, home of City.
“This decision is a disaster and a disgrace for football,” said the then Tottenham manager, José Mourinho. “Not good for sport”added Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool manager.
Now, as ‘The Athletic’ explains, everything has blown up due to a Premier League investigation that began in 2019. As always, all originating from the first leaked documents from ‘Football Leaks’.
