Manchester City inflated accounts by over £900m, commission finds
- Manchester City spent roughly £1.2bn on players between the summers of 2009 and 2018, distributing funds across 46 clubs in 19 national leagues, according to BBC Sport.
- The independent commission's findings on financial breaches highlighted how Manchester City's capital moved through the football ecosystem between 2009 and 2018.
- Receiving substantial transfer fees from Manchester City rarely guaranteed lasting sporting success for the selling clubs, according to BBC Sport senior journalist Daniel Austin.
Manchester City spent roughly £1.2bn on players between the summers of 2009 and 2018, distributing funds across 46 clubs in 19 national leagues, according to BBC Sport. An independent commission subsequently concluded that Manchester City inflated its accounts by more than £900m during that period, reshaping the global transfer market and raising prices for competitor clubs worldwide.
Where Manchester City Distributed £1.2bn in Transfer Spending
The independent commission’s findings on financial breaches highlighted how Manchester City’s capital moved through the football ecosystem between 2009 and 2018. Transfer spending was distributed relatively evenly across several of Europe’s top-ranked divisions, though the Premier League absorbed the largest share. Just over a quarter of Manchester City’s total transfer outlay was paid directly to competing English top-flight clubs, drawing from eight Premier League teams and eight La Liga clubs. Lower-league clubs like Queens Park Rangers and Barnsley secured windfall sell-on fees from major transactions involving players like Raheem Sterling and John Stones, mysportstab.com reported.
How Influxes of Cash Impacted Selling Clubs
Receiving substantial transfer fees from Manchester City rarely guaranteed lasting sporting success for the selling clubs, according to BBC Sport senior journalist Daniel Austin. Teams that cashed in on major sales frequently struggled in subsequent seasons. Wolfsburg sold Kevin de Bruyne to Manchester City in 2016 and immediately reinvested a portion of the funds by signing winger Julian Draxler and veteran defender Dante. Following that sale, Wolfsburg dropped from second to eighth in the Bundesliga and narrowly avoided relegation over the next two seasons. Monaco experienced a similar downturn after selling Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva during the same summer transfer window. Their direct replacements, Terence Kongolo and Keita Balde, failed to secure long-term success, and the club plummeted from winning Ligue 1 and reaching the Champions League semi-finals to near-relegation within two years. Arsenal, the club Manchester City purchased the most players from between 2009 and 2018 with a total of four signings, failed to mount a serious Premier League title challenge during that timeframe. Meanwhile, clubs that did not receive direct payments could argue their domestic chances were compromised by competing against rivals bolstered by inflated accounts. Benfica and Porto received comparable totals from Manchester City during the era, whereas Sporting received nothing. Sporting did not win a domestic title between 2009 and 2018, suggesting that the financial advantages handed to their direct rivals altered the competitive balance in Portugal.