Joe Hart says he trusts Manchester City chair over financial rules case

Joe Hart says he trusts Manchester City chair Khaldoon Al Mubarak’s insistence that the club did not break Premier League financial rules. The former City goalkeeper’s comments, made on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club, come after reports that a commission found against the club on most of 115 alleged breaches. Hart’s confidence is his personal view; Manchester City says the process is still ongoing.

What Hart said

Hart told the BBC programme: ‘I’ve got no reason not to trust Khaldoon. What he said is enough for me.’ He said he appreciated the chairman’s letter to supporters because it came from someone who cared about the club. Hart described Al Mubarak as a person to trust and said he had led City well.

The case touches achievements that Hart shared with the club. According to BBC Sport, he made 348 appearances for Manchester City in all competitions between 2006 and 2016, winning the Premier League twice, as well as the FA Cup and League Cup. He said the current dispute had not changed his pride in what he and his teammates achieved on the pitch.

Hart said he was ‘very confident and very, very calm’. He also said he had not spoken with former City teammates about the news, explaining that he could not get involved in ‘ifs, buts and maybes’. His account of playing for City speaks to his own experience; it does not establish what the commission decided about the club’s finances.

The chairman’s response

In a letter to supporters published after Friday’s media reports, Al Mubarak said the Premier League process ‘still has a long way to run’. He said City’s confidence and intent to prove its innocence were as strong as when the case began. He also said strict confidentiality prevented him from sharing more about why the club held that position.

The chairman urged supporters to read the club’s statements from Friday, September 25, and February 2023. Friday’s statement said significant elements of the process remained to be completed and described it as subject to strict confidentiality. The earlier statement said City was surprised by the alleged breaches and welcomed consideration of its evidence by an independent commission.

The Guardian reported on September 26 that Al Mubarak had publicly reaffirmed City’s position, quoting him as saying ‘nothing has changed’. His letter also acknowledged that supporters had faced questions from others after the media reports. The message asked them to retain confidence in the club while the process continues.

What is publicly established

BBC Sport reported that City had been found guilty of the majority of the 115 alleged rule breaches and was set to appeal. The Guardian described the reported outcome as guilty on all but one charge. In a September 28 explainer, the Associated Press said several outlets had reported a finding against City on almost all charges, but that no official verdict announcement had been made at the time of its report.

The allegations, as described by BBC Sport, include claims that City inflated sponsorship revenue from connected companies and made other payments outside the club’s books to get around financial rules. Those are allegations in the case. Without a publicly available formal ruling in these sources, the precise findings on individual charges cannot be stated as established facts.

The distinction matters for the next stage. BBC Sport said City was set to appeal, while City’s own statement said significant parts of the process remained unfinished. The available accounts do not establish that an appeal has been filed, when it would be heard, or what sanctions might follow. Hart’s endorsement of Al Mubarak therefore sits alongside a reported commission outcome whose formal details remain unavailable to the public.

Hart’s comments add a prominent former player’s response to the dispute, alongside the chairman’s public defence of the club. The club maintains its innocence, and the reported commission finding has prompted differing descriptions of the charge count. A formal announcement and any subsequent appeal would clarify the findings and the case’s eventual outcome.