City's appeal defence weakened as UEFA evidence contradicts 'Abu Dhabi paid' claim

Manchester City’s appeal against a guilty verdict on 114 Premier League financial charges is facing mounting pressure, after reports emerged that evidence the club previously submitted to UEFA undermines the core of their defence.

City were found guilty last week on 114 of 115 charges relating to financial breaches between 2009 and 2018. The Premier League alleged that ‘sham’ sponsorship arrangements were used to artificially inflate the club’s revenues by £900 million. City have denied all wrongdoing, insisting they hold ‘irrefutable evidence’ to clear their name, and have formally lodged an appeal that an independent three-person commission is expected to resolve before the end of the year.

A central plank of City’s defence is the argument that the disputed sponsorship deals were legitimate and funded by the Abu Dhabi government — a state-owned body — rather than by the club’s owners, Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG). Premier League rules permit state-owned entities to sponsor clubs, meaning that distinction is legally significant.

However, according to The Times, evidence City submitted to UEFA more than six years ago appears to cut against that position. The club reportedly told UEFA that two payments of £15 million each, made in 2012 and 2013, came from Jaber Mohamed, then general director of the UAE Crown Prince Court (CPC). Crucially, City are said to have told UEFA that “the payment was caused to be made by ADUG” — without disclosing evidence that Mohamed had links to the CPC. Those payments were reportedly meant to have been made by Etisalat, a City sponsor majority-owned by the UAE.

The apparent contradiction between what City told UEFA then and what they now argue in their appeal represents a significant complication for the club’s legal team.

This follows an earlier blow reported last week: Etihad Airways, City’s principal shirt sponsor, told the United States Departments of Commerce, Transportation, and State in 2015 — during a separate investigation into state-owned airlines — that claims of the Abu Dhabi government paying for sponsorships were “false.”

Taken together, the two pieces of historical evidence place City in the difficult position of defending a narrative that their own past disclosures appear to contradict. The independent commission overseeing the appeal has not yet set a hearing date, but the emerging picture suggests City’s path to overturning the verdict is considerably narrower than the club’s public statements have implied.