When Sheikh Mansour completed his takeover of Manchester City in September 2008, the club had won just two top-flight titles in 114 years — the most recent of them coming four decades before his arrival. City had finished ninth in 2007/08, a full 32 points adrift of champions Manchester United, and had been relegated three times since the Premier League era began.

What followed was one of English football's most dramatic transformations. Yet an independent commission has now determined that the financial foundations underpinning that rise involved serious, systematic rule-breaking.

The disguised funding scheme

The commission found that Manchester City artificially inflated their revenues by £830m over nine seasons — from 2009/10 through 2017/18 — through what it described as "sham" commercial contracts. City's Abu Dhabi United Group owners channelled enormous sums as sponsorship fees that were recorded as legitimate commercial income, a mechanism the commission labelled a "disguised funding scheme."

Those sponsorship payments grew dramatically over the period, rising from £22.5m in 2009/10 to £134.7m in 2017/18. The £830m artificially recorded as commercial revenue represents roughly 70 percent of the £1.2bn City spent on transfer fees during the same window.

Spending that changed the landscape

Between the summer of 2009 and the January 2018 transfer window, Manchester City spent £1.2bn on players — almost £300m more than second-placed Chelsea, who spent £931.7m. City's net spend of £888.2m dwarfed that of Manchester United, the next-highest on £513.1m. City ranked first in Premier League transfer spending in five of the nine seasons under investigation, and led on net spend in six of those nine.

The recruits arrived in waves. Before the club's first title in 44 years in 2011/12, incoming players included Carlos Tevez, Edin Dzeko, Yaya Toure, David Silva, Mario Balotelli, and James Milner — a combined outlay of £260.5m across two seasons. Sergio Aguero, Samir Nasri, Fernandinho, Jesus Navas, and Eliaquim Mangala followed in the next four campaigns.

The highest-spending season of the entire investigation period was 2017/18, when City committed £282.5m on players including Aymeric Laporte, Benjamin Mendy, Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva, and Ederson — and claimed their third Premier League title of the era.

Three titles, three elite managers

The club's financial firepower also enabled them to attract three elite managers in succession: Roberto Mancini, Manuel Pellegrini, and Pep Guardiola. Between 2009/10 and 2017/18, City won three Premier League titles, one FA Cup, three League Cups, and a Community Shield — the most decorated stretch in the club's history.

In 2008, City were a mid-table side. Since then, they have finished outside the Premier League's top three just once in 16 seasons, becoming eight-time champions — second only to Manchester United in the all-time title rankings, having overtaken both Chelsea and Arsenal.

Findings and consequences

The commission's verdict throws that entire transformative period into sharp relief. Possible sanctions include fines, transfer bans, and expulsion from the Premier League. Some voices — including Jamie Carragher — have called for City's titles to be stripped. City deny all wrongdoing and have announced their intention to appeal. Club chief executive Ferran Soriano dismissed the process as a "Premier League conspiracy theory."

Whatever the outcome of any appeal, the commission's findings make clear that the financial architecture behind one of English football's most dramatic rises was built, in substantial part, on artificially inflated foundations.