Not one member of Manchester City’s current squad was signed during the period in which an independent commission found the club guilty of all charges relating to breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations. Those offences all fell between 2009 and 2018, a window that closed before any of the players presently at the Etihad Campus were brought in. City have denied any wrongdoing and have appealed against all of the charges against them.
Ruben Dias is the longest-serving member of the first team who was bought from another club. The Portuguese centre-back and club captain arrived from Benfica in 2020 and has since made more than 250 appearances for City. The next longest-serving arrival is Norway striker Erling Haaland, who joined from Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2022.
Phil Foden is the only player to have represented the club during the period in which it breached the league’s financial rules, but he was not a senior signing, having come through the academy. The 26-year-old made his first-team debut in a Champions League match against Feyenoord in November 2017. Rico Lewis, another versatile midfielder, is likewise a product of the club’s youth system, though he did not make his senior debut until August 2022.
Every other senior player in the squad was signed between 2023 and 2026, meaning the group currently available to City was assembled entirely after the years covered by the charges. The question was put to BBC Sport’s Ask Me Anything team by Neil in West Sussex.