English Premier League
Premier League accuses Manchester City witnesses of giving false evidence
A Premier League report has accused some witnesses who gave evidence on behalf of Manchester City of being “dishonest” and providing “false” testimony during the investigation into the club’s alleged financial-rule breaches.
The new details emerged after an independent commission found Manchester City guilty of all the charges relating to breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations across nine seasons, from 2009/10 to 2017/18.
The commission also found the club guilty of three of the four allegations relating to its failure to co-operate with the Premier League’s investigation.
According to The Sun, the Premier League made the accusations about Manchester City’s witnesses in the full report published on Tuesday.
The league said that most of the factual witnesses who appeared before the commission had attempted to give honest evidence and assist it in reaching conclusions on the charges.
However, it said a number of key witnesses called to give evidence on behalf of Manchester City had not been truthful on several important matters.
The report stated in section 529: “We concluded that the majority of the factual witnesses who gave evidence before us were doing their best to give truthful evidence and to assist us in determining the charges.”
It added: “However, as explained principally in Appendix 6, we concluded that the evidence given by a number of important factual witnesses called to give evidence on behalf of the club was false in a number of material respects, and that some of those factual witnesses gave evidence at the hearing which they knew to be untrue, and were therefore dishonest.”
The findings form part of the Premier League’s case against Manchester City over alleged systematic violations of the competition’s financial rules.
The commission’s conclusions cover the period between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons, while the club was also found to have breached the league’s requirements to co-operate with the investigation in three of the four relevant charges.