'RIP Man City': Meme fest after club charged by Premier League for breaking financial rules over 100 times

In what has sparked a massive outburst among football fans, the Premier League on Monday charged defending champions Manchester City with breaking the financial regulations more than 100 times in the course of nine seasons.

The charges against the reigning Pep Guardiola-led side relate to financial information regarding revenue, manager and player remuneration details, UEFA regulations, profitability and sustainability and cooperation with Premier League investigations.

Alleged violations, which the league says were committed between September 2009 and the 2017–18 season, will now be forwarded to an impartial panel. City face charges as well for not helping with the inquiry, which started in December 2018.

Premier League adds that Man City is alleged to have breached league rules requiring provision 'in utmost good faith' of 'accurate financial information that gives a true and fair view of the club's financial position'.

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Man City might face various penalties, including expulsion or a reduction in points, should they be proven guilty, though the process could take years. Between the dates mentioned, the Cityzens won three Premier League titles, an FA Cup and three Carabao Cups.

"In accordance with Premier League Rule W.82.1, the Premier League confirms that it has today referred a number of alleged breaches of the Premier League Rules by Manchester City Football Club to a Commission," Premier League said in a statement.

Man City 'surprised' by alleged breaches of Premier League rules

Manchester City have issued a response to charges from the Premier League over breaches of financial rules. 

“Manchester City FC is surprised by the issuing of these alleged breaches of the Premier League rules, particularly given the extensive engagement and vast amount of detailed materials that the EPL has been provided with,” read an official club statement.

“The club welcomes the review of this matter by an independent commission, to impartially consider the comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position. As such we look forward to this matter being put to rest once and for all," it added.

City has vehemently denied any violations of the financial regulations. Yet, the investigation was launched in December 2018 following the publication of papers from the Football Leaks cache by the German website Der Spiegel, which Portuguese hacker Rui Pinto obtained. 

It was claimed that City exaggerated sponsorship revenue by using funds provided by the club's owners rather than sponsors with ties to Abu Dhabi. 

When Roberto Mancini was at Manchester City, it was claimed that his salary had increased thanks to a covert agreement with a team in Abu Dhabi. They were also accused of violating the regulations regarding how they approached young players.

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In July 2021, reports brought to light emails that appeared to suggest that City had millions funnelled into the club by Abu Dhabi to help inflate their income.

The team was previously barred from the Champions League and fined 25 million pounds when it was discovered that they had severely misled the regulatory body of European football, UEFA, and violated financial fair play regulations. The Court of Arbitration for Sport subsequently lifted this and decreased the club's sentence to 9 million pounds.

The panel at the time said City had shown a 'disregard' for the principle that clubs must cooperate with a governing body's investigations and conducted an 'obstruction of the investigations'.

The CAS concluded that "most of the alleged breaches were either not established or time-barred" in response to the CFCB adjudicatory chamber's key judgement that City's Abu Dhabi ownership had misrepresented its own funding as independent sponsorship by the state's commercial enterprises. However, according to Premier League rules, there is no restriction on how long it has been since an alleged offence occurred.

An arbitration tribunal ordered City to provide "certain documents and information to the Premier League and to make enquiries of third parties' two years after the Premier League's investigation started.

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A Court of Appeal judgement from July 2021 showed that City had unsuccessfully contested the Premier League panel's order to request papers and information.

Following inquiries about the claims against City from a number of top-flight teams, the Premier League initially declared an investigation was underway in March 2019.

The statement from Premier League added, "The proceedings before the Commission will, in accordance with Premier League Rule W.82, be confidential and heard in private. Under Premier League Rule W.82.2, the Commission's final award will be published on the Premier League's website. This confirmation is made in accordance with Premier League Rule W.82.1. The Premier League will be making no further comment in respect of this matter until further notice."

Following this news, a meme fest exploded on Twitter, with most Premier League fans trolling Man City. Here's a look at some of the memes that went viral: