Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano has rejected the guilty verdicts against the club for breaches of financial rules, describing the case as “a single false accusation” and “a Premier League conspiracy theory”. He maintained City’s innocence in a video sent to staff after the verdict on more than 100 charges was confirmed on Tuesday.
An independent panel found that City had artificially inflated revenue and reduced costs by more than £900m over a nine-year period through “sham” sponsorship deals. Those deals were mainly funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club.
Soriano told staff that City would appeal and fight the case. “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,” he said. “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.”
He argued that every other charge stemmed from that central accusation. “Every other false charge that has been thrown at us comes from that simple, central and completely false accusation,” Soriano said. “Surprisingly for us and our lawyers after nearly two years the commission has issued an opinion that supports the Premier League’s conspiracy theory. 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.”
City must wait to hear what sanctions they will receive at a further hearing of the independent commission, but the club remain confident of overturning the original decision.