Premier League confirms Manchester City broke financial rules

The Premier League has confirmed that Manchester City have been found guilty of breaking its financial rules during a nine-year-period between 2009 and 2018.

According to its report, an independent commission found that the club arranged for "sham" - or misleading - contracts, and used deals with commercial partners to hide secret funding of more than £830 million.

Manchester City continues to deny the charges and any wrongdoing, and said in a statement it would be appealing the decision.

The club has until Friday to make its appeal.

The Premier League, whose job it is to make sure clubs in England follow the rules, spent four years investigating Manchester City over claims that the club had broken its financial rules.

An independent commission, separate from the Premier League and Manchester City, then looked at this evidence and made its decision.

Last week, sports news source The Athletic reported that City had been found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges against them.

But at the time, the Premier League had not officially confirmed the result.

On Tuesday, the Premier League finally published the comission's findings, confirming that Manchester City have been found guilty of the financial rule breaches.

It also said the club had been found guilty of most of the charges relating to its co-operation with the investigation.

In response, Manchester City said it was "both disappointed and surprised" by the decision of the commission and that "the Club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League".

The club has already confirmed it will appeal the decision.

They have until Friday 2 October to officially do so.

For now, we don't know what punishment Manchester City could face, or when it will be announced.

A separate hearing will be held by the independent comission to decide what punishment, if any, Manchester City could face.

You can find out more about the background to this story, and what rules Manchester City broke here.