The disguised funding scheme
The independent commission's ruling shows how Manchester City owners Abu Dhabi United Group were also topping up the value of deals. The so-called Disguised Funding Scheme is the central plank in a series of charges that Manchester City have been found guilty of by the Premier League. This scheme managed to hide more than £830m of sponsorship funding, while other devices hid £90m in expenses.
The Premier League has found Manchester City guilty of breaking Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, with the independent commission ruling that the club utilized a disguised funding scheme to hide £830m of sponsorship revenue. This scheme involved splitting sponsorship deals into a base fee and a tagged sum, allowing the club's Abu Dhabi owners to pay the majority of the tagged sum.
While sponsors paid the base fee, the club's owners covered the majority, resulting in a misleading financial representation. The total commercial income from sponsors between 2009-10 and 2017-18 was £949.94m, but only £119.25m represented base fees. The remaining £830.69m were tagged sums paid by the club's owners. The ruling states that Manchester City denied these claims and accused the Premier League of misunderstanding the sponsorship agreements, but the panel dismissed this explanation as untrue, describing it as concocted after the fact to obscure the disguised funding scheme.
One example of the scheme's use is when the club plugged a £9.9m shortfall in May 2013, increasing recorded sponsorship fees to pay bonuses and cover expenses within days, avoiding a potential Uefa FFP breach.
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