HMRC probed Man City over 'sham' deals in 2018 as appeal lodged against £900m verdict

HM Revenue & Customs launched a civil investigation into Manchester City’s tax arrangements in 2018, according to the Financial Times, in a disclosure that surfaces just weeks after an independent Premier League commission found the club guilty of breaching financial rules spanning nearly a decade.

The tax inquiry was triggered by a leak of internal City emails published by Der Spiegel — the same leak that prompted the Premier League to open its own investigation in December 2018. HMRC’s probe was conducted under a Code of Practice 9 framework, a mechanism used when authorities suspect complex structures have been used to avoid tax, though it stops short of alleging deliberate fraud.

City instructed external lawyers to argue to HMRC that its commercial agreements were legitimate. The tax authority has not taken any formal action as a result, and both HMRC and Manchester City declined to comment on the matter.

The HMRC investigation reportedly was never formally closed, and its existence has come to light one week after Dame Meg Hillier, Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, wrote to HMRC permanent secretary John-Paul Marks seeking reassurance that he understood “the importance” of the Premier League case.

The independent commission’s findings, published last month, concluded that City artificially inflated its finances by more than £900m between 2009 and 2018 through what it described as “sham” commercial deals — arrangements that disguised funding from owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan as commercial revenue. The club was found guilty of all but one of the charges brought against it.

Manchester City vehemently denies the allegations and formally lodged an appeal on Thursday 1 October 2026, ahead of a Friday deadline. In a statement, the club said the commission’s opinion “contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe,” adding that it had submitted a “comprehensive appeal” on multiple grounds.

The fallout from the verdict continues to reverberate across European football, with the appeals process expected to extend the saga considerably further.