Manchester City CEO Soriano calls panel verdicts ‘a Premier League conspiracy theory’

Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano said on Tuesday that the independent panel’s guilty verdicts over alleged breaches of Premier League financial rules rested on “a single false accusation” and amounted to “a Premier League conspiracy theory”, and the club will appeal.

The independent panel concluded that City had artificially inflated revenue and reduced costs by more than £900m over a nine-year period through “sham” sponsorship deals largely funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), according to the commission’s findings confirmed on Tuesday on more than 100 charges. Soriano sent a video message to club staff after the verdict was confirmed, reiterating Manchester City’s denial of wrongdoing.

In the video Soriano said: “The whole Premier League case against us is based on a single false accusation – that the owner’s personal money was somehow and secretly put into the club via some sponsors from Abu Dhabi. This is just not true. Irrefutable evidence has been provided to the Premier League commission that shows it could not happen and that it did not happen. This includes bank statements, money transfers, witnesses and everything necessary to categorically demonstrate the money did not come from the owner.”

City must await to hear the sanctions they will receive at a further hearing of the independent commission, but the club said it remained confident of overturning the original decision. Soriano added: “Every other false charge that has been thrown at us comes from that simple, central and completely false accusation. Surprisingly for us and our lawyers after nearly two years the commission has issued an opinion that supports the Premier League’s conspiracy theory.”

Soriano accused the commission’s opinion of ignoring the club’s evidence and announced legal action. “To do so, the opinion had to ignore the extensive evidence provided by the club in order to reach a conclusion that is clearly wrong. Our lawyers will now file an appeal that sets out the opinion contains clear, material errors of law, principle and fact and that it is unsafe.”

The independent panel’s verdict, the pending sanctions hearing and the club’s intention to lodge an appeal set the next formal steps in the case: City will face a further commission hearing to determine sanctions while its lawyers pursue the appeal outlined by Soriano.