Manchester City have been found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges brought against them over alleged breaches of Premier League financial regulations, in a ruling that places the club at the centre of an unresolved disciplinary process.
The charges covered the period from the 2009-10 season to the 2017-18 season. City were found guilty of all charges relating to breaches of the Premier League's financial regulations during those seasons.
An independent panel found that the club arranged 'sham contracts' with several commercial partners as part of a scheme to disguise secret funding worth more than £830m. The identities of those partners have not been given in the findings outlined so far.
The independent commission also found that City 'utilised devices' to 'disguise the true extent of certain club liabilities'. The Premier League said the club had 'systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade'.
The Football Association said the guilty verdict carried 'significant implications for the integrity of the game'. It said it would make no further substantive comment while the case remained open.
'As proceedings between the Premier League and Manchester City Football Club remain ongoing, we do not intend to comment further at this stage,' the FA said. 'We will, however, continue to monitor developments closely.'
City have until Friday to lodge an appeal. Sources told BBC Sport that the club was expected to argue that key sponsorship agreements were funded by the Abu Dhabi government rather than by the club's owners.
That anticipated argument points to a central dispute over the origin of the sponsorship funding considered in the case. The panel's findings described commercial contracts used to conceal funding, while City is expected to challenge the account of where money behind key deals came from.
No specific penalties or sanctions have been set out in the information available. The outcome of any appeal, and the timetable for resolving it, are also unknown.
The ruling concerns one club and one set of proceedings, yet it has prompted an explicit response from the FA on the standards by which the game is governed. For City, the immediate next step is whether to lodge an appeal before Friday.
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