The storm is far from over for Manchester City. Accused in 2023 by the Premier League of having violated a large number of financial fair play rules of the English championship, the Mancunian club was officially found guilty of 114 offenses. A huge clap of thunder. Faced with one of the biggest scandals in the history of the Premier League, the Skyblues have appealed and intend to use the political connections between the British government and the United Arab Emirates to apply pressure.
Manchester City is indeed playing very big. Expulsion from the championship, withdrawal of points and titles: the range of possible sanctions is wide and very frightening to Cityzens supporters. And this morning, the Financial Times has made a new revelation about Pep Guardiola’s former team. In addition to the investigation carried out by the Premier League, the British tax authorities, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), also took advantage of the “Football Leaks” revelations to poke their noses into the club’s accounts.
An investigation (before the Premier League investigation) still not closed
This is an investigation carried out in 2018, but different to that launched by the Premier League in December of the same year. This procedure was intended to determine whether Manchester City had resorted to complex arrangements in order to pay less tax. A different investigation launched by HMRC when it “suspects a person or company of having used complex arrangements for tax evasion purposes”sources indicated FTwhich however specify that these are not suspicions of deliberate fraud (contrary to the PL investigation).
For its part, Manchester City reacted by putting lawyers on the scene. The latter then informed HMRC that there was nothing wrong with the commercial agreements made by the club. Once again, Manchester City has therefore chosen to deny any fault. However, this investigation risks causing discussion, because it was never officially closed and HMRC would not have taken any action towards the English club.
