SourcesFilm 10
“We Can Do What We Want”
On YouTube as “How Man City Hid £830 Million to Buy Their Titles”
Corrections and updates
None so far.
Cold open
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Manchester City independent Commission, Redacted Core Decision (40 pages; every sponsor’s and executive’s name blacked out) archived
Across the nine seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18 City recorded £949.94 million from its Abu Dhabi sponsors; “Only £119.25 million represented Base Fees for which AD Sponsors were liable and which AD Sponsors in fact paid”; “A total of £830.69 million represented Tagged Sums, payable by and paid by ADUG to the Club” (¶72); ADUG is “a private AD investment company ultimately owned by HHSM”, Sheikh Mansour (¶49)
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Profile of new UAE Vice-President: Mansour bin Zayed appointed Vice President of the United Arab Emirates by the UAE President; Deputy Prime Minister since 2009
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Man City Confirm Appeal of Guilty Verdict After Fresh FA Threat archived
The club’s statement, “The Club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions”
The plug
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Commission, Redacted Core Decision, the plug and the ledger archived
“On 25 May 2013 - less than a week before the end of that 2012/13 financial year” City was forecast to be "£9.9million ‘short’” of UEFA’s break-even rule; “In a matter of days, without AD Sponsors even being approached, a number of modified AD Sponsor Agreements were generated”; the shortfall was “plugged” (¶89); the sponsor pays only the Base Sum, the Tagged Sum is “payable by (and would in fact be paid by) ADUG” (¶67); the season-by-season table, ADUG’s share rising from £22.5 million in 2009/10 to £134.73 million in 2017/18 (¶72, fn 8)
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Manchester City Exposed, Chapter 1 archived
Bending the Rules to the Tune of Millions: CFO Jorge Chumillas, May 2013, “We will have a shortfall of 9.9m pounds in order to comply with UEFA FFP this season”; Chumillas to Simon Pearce, a club executive, “Please note that out of those 67.5m pounds, 8m pounds should be funded directly by Etihad and 59.5 by ADUG”; asked by Chumillas about changing payment dates, Pearce: “Of course, we can do what we want.”
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Leaked Emails Reveal How Man City ‘Manipulated’ Sponsor Contracts to Cheat FFP Rules: Chumillas, “I think that the only solution left would be an additional amount of AD sponsorship revenues that covers this gap”; Der Spiegel calls City’s financial reports “a web of lies”
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Der Spiegel’s Final Exposé on Man City Reveals Alleged Shady Contract for Roberto Mancini archived
The manager’s second deal, a consultancy contract with Al Jazira; a City executive in 2011, “We will need to send monies to ADUG and ADUG will then pass on to Al Jazira with payment instruction.”
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Soccer-Mancini says ‘double contract’ during Man City tenure ‘not my concern’ archived
“Manchester City isn’t guilty, and the dual contract issue absolutely doesn’t concern me”
Whose money
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Man City score six and mark new era archived
Sheikh Mansour’s open letter to the fans, bought “as part of my personal business strategy to hold a wide portfolio of business investments”
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Public interest test on the proposed acquisition by RedBird IMI Joint Venture of the Telegraph Media Group archived
Sheikh Mansour “holds numerous positions within the UAE government, including Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister”; he “is Chairman of the UAE sovereign wealth fund, the Emirates Investment Authority, and the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, the Mubadala Investment Company”; he owns the Abu Dhabi United Group and IMI (¶4.8, 6.29-6.32) (report of 11 Mar 2024, published 16 Oct 2026)
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Award CAS 2020/A/6785, Manchester City FC v. UEFA, on the sponsors archived
“Etihad is part of the Etihad Aviation Group, which is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi” (¶9; again ¶258)
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Corporate Governance Report 2017: the shareholder table, “Emirates Investment Authority ... 60%”
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Barclays investment spotlights IPIC archived
IPIC’s chairman is “Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, who also serves as Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE”; “The Abu Dhabi Government fully owns IPIC”; IPIC holds a majority stake in Aabar Investments
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Manchester City’s Cozy Ties to Abu Dhabi archived
Sponsorship Money – Paid for by the State: the Executive Affairs Authority, “an Abu Dhabi government agency”, “obviously manages the accounts belonging to ADUG”, with Khaldoon Al Mubarak, also chairman of Manchester City, at its head; the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority’s £13.5 million of sponsorship, “only 1.5 million pounds” paid by the authority itself
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Telegraph takeover by UAE-backed group would have risked press freedom – Ofcom archived
RedBird IMI withdrew its bid in 2024 after the UK moved to bar foreign-state ownership of newspapers; Ofcom’s spokesman, “We found that IMI, an investment vehicle owned by Sheikh Mansour, should be considered an extension of the UAE state.”
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Abu Dhabi’s IMI rejects UK Ofcom report into Telegraph bid
“Allegations are not findings. Association is not control. Speculation is not evidence.”
What it bought
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Commission, Redacted Core Decision, owner money and the restated accounts archived
“In its first season of owning the Club ADUG provided the Club with over £190million in equity investment. During the 2009/10 season ADUG provided a further £295million” (¶53); the accounts charge covers every season from 2009/10 to 2017/18 (¶81); restated, City did not "(by a very substantial amount)” meet UEFA’s break-even requirement or the Premier League’s PSR “in any of the seasons” charged (¶149b, ¶153b)
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Manchester City halve annual losses
The club’s 2011/12 accounts, wage bill £178.1 million, up from £151.6 million
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What if club’s Premier League titles and trophies are stripped? Who ‘benefits’ and what changes?: the three titles inside the charged seasons, 2011/12, 2013/14 (City 86 points, Liverpool 84) and 2017/18 (100 points)
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Everton FC deducted 10 points by independent Commission
A PSR loss of £124.5 million against the permitted £105 million, £19.5 million over
Caught, and cleared
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Commission, Redacted Core Decision, the earlier cases archived
UEFA and the club entered into the May 2014 UEFA Settlement Agreement and “no findings were made” (¶102); “In November 2018, following a hack of the Club’s servers in 2017, Der Spiegel published a series of articles” (¶103)
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Club Financial Control Body Adjudicatory Chamber decision on Manchester City Football Club
“serious breaches ... by overstating its sponsorship revenue in its accounts and in the break-even information submitted to UEFA between 2012 and 2016”; the club “failed to cooperate in the investigation”; excluded from UEFA club competitions for 2020/21 and 2021/22 and fined €30 million
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Award CAS 2020/A/6785, Manchester City FC v. UEFA archived
The May 2014 settlement’s terms as UEFA recorded them, a break-even deficit of at most €20 million in 2014 and €10 million in 2015, €60 million withheld from prize money of which €20 million was forfeited (pp.12-13); breaches before 15 May 2014 are barred (¶174); “Any alleged wrongdoing of MCFC with respect to the Etisalat payments is time-barred. Any alleged wrongdoing of MCFC with respect to the Etihad payments is partially time-barred and, in any event, not established to the comfortable satisfaction of the Panel” (¶324); “UEFA by no means filed frivolous charges” (¶325); the 2019 information “would have provided a more complete and accurate picture of two payments to MCFC in 2012 and 2013” (¶329); the fine cut to €10 million for City’s “blatant disregard” of the duty to cooperate (¶335); “MCFC may have avoided the Appealed Decision by already filing such evidence before the CFCB” (¶341); UEFA’s own list of sanctions includes “withdrawal of a title or award” (¶323)
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Ferran Soriano claims ‘conspiracy theory’ after bombshell verdict for Man City
Soriano tells City’s staff “We have been here before”, resting on the 2020 win
Guilty
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Manchester City FC: the decision published, a separate hearing to decide sanctions; Richard Masters, “This disciplinary case, and this decision, are the most significant in Premier League history.”
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Commission, Redacted Core Decision, the findings archived
“well over 100 individual breaches” (¶1); “The substantive hearing took place over 42 days in the last quarter of 2024” (¶16; hearing dates September to December 2024 on the cover); “Each of the AD Sponsorship Agreements ... was a sham” (¶110); “By its conduct the Club clearly intended to circumvent the PL Rules.” (¶114); club witnesses “had given evidence at the hearing that they knew to be untrue and so had been dishonest” (¶29); £830.69 million paid by ADUG (¶72)
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Independent Commission finds against Manchester City as club says it will appeal the decision
Soriano, in a video to staff, accuses the commission of backing the League’s “conspiracy theory”
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Man City chairman says ‘nothing has changed’ and vows to prove club’s innocence
Khaldoon Al Mubarak’s written statement, “nothing has changed”; “our confidence and intent in proving the club’s innocence is just as strong as when this began”
The escape
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Full detail of Man City’s ‘irrefutable evidence’ as they look to overturn verdict: City’s appeal rests on “Contemporaneous bank statements, government records and receipts they believe confirm the Abu Dhabi government as the source of funds”
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Commission, Redacted Core Decision, the government story and the blacked-out names archived
“We rejected that explanation ... as untrue. We concluded that it was an ‘explanation’ that the Club had concocted well after the event” (¶77); “There was no direct evidence that [REDACTED] was aware of the Disguised Funding Scheme or authorised the operation of the Disguised Funding Scheme” (¶70); individuals are identified only in unpublished appendices (¶87, ¶98)
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Club’s strategy brought into question by 2015 statement main sponsor Etihad Airways submitted to US government: Etihad’s May 2015 filing, as quoted by Sky, “The assertion that the Abu Dhabi government paid for Etihad’s sponsorship of English Premier League football club Manchester City is equally false”; “Etihad funded this sponsorship from its own liquidity”
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Football Governance Act 2025, section 37
The regulator’s rules “must not have the effect of authorising the IFR to make a determination in relation to any matter based solely on the individual’s connection with the government of any country or territory” (s.37(6)) (Royal Assent 21 Jul 2025)
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HMRC Opened Man City Tax Probe in 2018 After Email Leaks
The investigation began after the leaks; its outcome was never made public
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Manchester City breaches need tax implication answers, UK Parliament told
Meg Hillier, chair of the Treasury Committee, writes to HMRC’s Permanent Secretary asking whether it holds an unredacted report
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Soccer-UK’s HMRC declines to say if it is investigating Man City
“taxpayer confidentiality prevents” comment on any inquiry
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Rule W.52, the commission’s sanction powers, quoted in full (¶11): reprimand, unlimited fine, suspension, points deduction, replay, a recommendation to expel, compensation, “such other penalty as it shall think fit”; no item names stripping a title
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Premier League doesn’t want to strip Man City of past titles: BBC Sport’s Dan Roan reports “little appetite” in the League to take away the titles won from 2009 to 2018
The pressure
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UAE to invest £10 billion in priority UK industries
The UK Office for Investment and Mubadala Investment Company “signed the agreement at Downing Street”; Khaldoon Al Mubarak speaks for Mubadala as its Managing Director
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Man City’s Premier League Troubles Discussed Between UK, UAE Officials
The UAE raised the case “during a meeting with Foreign Secretary David Lammy last year”
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Man City Chairman Met UK Minister on UAE Investment Before Club Guilty Verdict
Khaldoon Al Mubarak, as Mubadala’s chief executive, met Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds at Downing Street on 14 September 2026 about UAE investment in the UK
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Manchester City Verdict Strains UK-UAE Diplomatic Relations
Emirati officials warn the UK government over investment; no official named
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Abu Dhabi hits back over Man City ruling
Citing Bloomberg, Emirati officials warned that the ruling could diminish the UAE’s appetite to invest in Britain, where about £30 billion is committed
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Prime Minister Andy Burnham ‘concerned’ Man City’s owners could sell the club
To the BBC, “I would be really concerned to lose them. They’ve been such a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester.”
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Details of UK PM Burnham’s Manchester City meetings published
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s list, a formal meeting with Khaldoon Al Mubarak in October 2021 at “the UK Government’s Global Investment Summit”; as mayor “he was a guest of Manchester City FC at home matches”
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Burnham had two hospitality dinners with Man City chairman, deleted records show
Dinners with Khaldoon in August 2017 and April 2018, missing from the published list; the register that recorded them had been deleted from the authority’s website, as The Sun reported; Downing Street calls them hospitality at home games “which had been declared”
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A joint venture of Manchester City Council and ADUG since 2014; 1,468 homes in Ancoats, none of them affordable; ADUG holds the leaseholds and income rights through subsidiaries in Jersey; “From the limited information available in the public domain - this looks like a bad deal for the council and its citizens.”
The clock
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Man City Appeal Expected by Late January, Says UK Football Regulator
David Kogan, chair of the Independent Football Regulator, on Times Radio, “people are assuming this will actually be heard by the middle or the end of January”
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Manchester City’s charges appeal to be heard by January, regulator says
No appeal hearing date announced; the panel “an independent commission made up of three retired judges or lawyers”
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Latest on sanctions hearing and appeal against guilty verdict: the same three-person panel will decide sanctions; no date set
Interviews and clips quoted in the film
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“I have nothing to say, thank you.”; Sky’s caption reads “Club is innocent of the accusations made”
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Jamie Carragher, former Liverpool defender
“It’s in the emails, we can do what we want” and “nobody ever tells them no”
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Kaveh Solhekol, chief correspondent
The £830 million “was put into the club by City’s owners, the Abu Dhabi United Group, and it was disguised as sponsorship income”
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Kieran Maguire, football finance expert, University of Liverpool, on the word “sham”
“it says hoax, it says misrepresentation, it says fraud”
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David Conn, investigative journalist, The Guardian
The executives running the club “are very senior political and financial executives in Abu Dhabi”
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Kieran Maguire, his own estimate
“just shy of a billion pounds in additional revenue”, spent on player wages and transfers
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Rob Harris, sports correspondent
Agüero’s 2012 title goal “was part of a team built with this deceptive spending”
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Steven Gerrard, Liverpool captain, after losing the 2013/14 title
“absolutely devastated ... personally gutted and gutted for the fans” (end of the 2013/14 season; uploaded 20 May 2022)
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A Liverpool supporter, vox pop: “we would’ve had about at least three more Premier League titles”
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An Everton supporter, vox pop: “we had points deducted ... for what seems on paper far less”
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Khaldoon Al Mubarak, chairman, after the CAS ruling: “in a fair process ... the truth will prevail”
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Pep Guardiola, Manchester City manager, after CAS: “we were damaged”
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Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool manager: “I don’t think it was a good day for football yesterday”
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Simon Harding, sports editor: “the ruling did not exonerate City from any wrongdoing”
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Ferran Soriano, in a leaked video to City’s staff
“In 2020, we were also wrongly ruled against ... We appealed to an independent body in CAS, and we won.”
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Khaldoon Al Mubarak at the club’s annual address, after the charges
“I’ll give you my very blunt views. I promise you that.”
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Ferran Soriano, same leaked video
The case rests on the claim “that the owner’s personal money was somehow and secretly put into the club via some sponsors from Abu Dhabi. This is just not true.”
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David Kogan, chair of the Independent Football Regulator
“If these verdicts are upheld, we will use our statutory powers ... to look at owners, directors, and senior executives”
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“the person who signed the 10 billion pound investment ... is Khaldoon Al Mubarak”, also “the chairman of Manchester City”
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Jim White, football columnist, The Telegraph
“if they are making these behind the scenes ... threats about pulling out, then it becomes a very significant thing”
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Andy Burnham, Prime Minister, at Prime Minister’s Questions on his dealings with City’s owners
“they did not raise those issues with me”
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David Kogan: “if need be ... I will resign as a consequence of it”
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Jamie Carragher: City “left this stain that will be there for the next 10 years”