There may have been no Premier League games for almost three weeks, but the English top flight was at the center of a huge amount of drama during the international break.
Manchester City found guilty of financial breaches
“An independent commission has found Manchester City FC guilty of all charges relating to serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations over a nine-season period, as well as of most charges related to its lack of cooperation with the League’s investigation,” reads the opening paragraph of a statement issued by the Premier League on Sept. 29.
Four days earlier, The Athletic had broken the story, explaining that the Sky Blues had “been found guilty on all but one of the 115 charges” they had been accused of.
The numbers were damning.
The independent commission that found City guilty concluded in its final ruling that the club recorded £949.94 million ($1.27 billion) in commercial revenue from Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) between 2009 and 2018. Sheikh Mansour, who bought Manchester City in 2008, is the owner behind the group.
While Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano maintains that the club has “irrefutable evidence” that proves the money did not come from the club’s owner, the independent commission found that £830.69 million ($1.11 billion) of that revenue was incorrectly recorded as commercial income when it should have been treated as capital contributions from ADUG.
To put it simply, City had inflated revenue and reduced costs to the tune of £920.7 million ($1.23 billion). That, in turn, allowed them to spend money they shouldn’t have on players between 2009 and 2018.
No punishment has yet been handed down and, with City set to appeal the decision, it could be some time before one comes. However, the Sky Blues being stripped of titles won during that nine-year period is one of the sanctions on the table.
Manchester United two ‘lost’ Premier League titles
With that in mind, attention has turned to the other clubs who have been the biggest victims of City’s wrongdoings.
Had City’s results been removed between 2009-10 and 2017-18, Manchester United would have been the biggest beneficiaries in terms of Premier League titles, which would have been theirs in 2011-12 and 2017-18, seasons in which the Red Devils finished as runners-up.
City’s third title during that period, won in 2013-14, would have gone to Liverpool. Brendan Rodgers’ team finished just two points behind the Manchester side, with Chelsea another couple of points adrift.
Liverpool and Arsenal would also benefit
However, City’s true dominance of the Premier League came after the period being investigated. Of course, they have not been found guilty of doing anything wrong after 2018, but whether they did and we just don’t know about it or they didn’t, the years prior to that laid the foundation for Pep Guardiola to win six titles in seven years between 2018 and 2024.
City’s Premier League rivals might therefore argue there is some doubt about the legitimacy of the leagues they also won in the subsequent years.
Had their results been wiped, Liverpool would have added another two titles to their tally, in 2018-19 and 2021-22, under Jürgen Klopp, in addition to the two they did win in 2019-20 and 2024-25.
Arsenal’s title drought, which came to an end last season, would have ended three years earlier in 2022-23. The Gunners also would have won a second successive championship in 2023-24.
Finally, Manchester United, who haven’t won the Premier League since 2012-13, would have had a third title since then in 2020-21.
United and Liverpool would move further clear
Incidentally, those changes wouldn’t alter anything when it comes to English soccer’s most successful clubs. United and Liverpool currently lead the way on that score with 20 titles and would both have 23 if they were retrospectively awarded titles.
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