Manchester City and Clippers rulings: what was found, and what happens next

Manchester City faces a separate sanction hearing after a Premier League commission found serious financial-rule breaches, the league announced on 29 September. The LA Clippers have already received NBA penalties over salary-cap circumvention, announced on 2 September. An opinion column published by the Guardian on 1 October brought the cases together as examples of accountability for wealthy sports owners, but their immediate consequences are different.

What the Manchester City commission found

The Premier League said the independent commission found City guilty of all charges concerning serious financial-rule breaches across nine seasons, from 2009/10 through 2017/18. It also upheld three of four alleged breaches of the club’s duty to cooperate with the league’s investigation. The league says the commission concluded that City made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate that investigation. The distinction matters: the cooperation allegations were not all upheld.

According to the league’s account of the decision, City arranged commercial agreements that misrepresented what sponsors would pay. The commission found that related arrangements funded by the club’s owner, Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd, allowed City to record more revenue and lower costs than it otherwise would have. The league says the arrangements inflated revenue and reduced costs by more than £900 million over the period, with the purpose of making the club appear compliant with financial rules.

The Premier League says the commission found that City filed misstated accounts and concealed its true financial position from auditors and football regulators. It also found substantial breaches of the Premier League’s and UEFA’s spending limits. These are findings announced by the league, rather than estimates of a penalty: the commission has not yet imposed one. A redacted version of its core decision has been published, while further appendices have yet to be released.

When Manchester City could face a sanction

Premier League rules give the commission a range of possible sanctions, including fines, points deductions and other sporting measures. None has been announced in this case. City has until Friday 2 October to appeal the findings. The league says it wants the process, including any appeal and publication of relevant decisions, completed as soon as possible. That leaves both the sanction and any appeal outcome open.

Earlier NewsJaws coverage traced the years of charges and major moments in City’s case. The change since that account is a commission finding on the alleged breaches; the process has moved from disputed charges to a ruling, while the sporting consequences remain undecided.

What the NBA found in the Clippers case

The NBA announced its Clippers findings on 2 September after an investigation by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. The league said the team arranged income opportunities away from basketball between Kawhi Leonard and four companies doing business with the Clippers: Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance. It said the club facilitated endorsement agreements and offered those companies team business to encourage the deals.

The NBA also found that the Clippers paid personal expenses for Leonard and his representatives and failed to report improper requests for income opportunities made through his then-business manager, Dennis Robertson. It said Leonard, through Robertson’s conduct on his behalf, violated the salary-cap circumvention rules by pressing the team to help secure those opportunities, obtaining them and failing to reimburse the personal expenses. Those are the league’s findings; the NBA release does not make the Premier League’s separate case part of its decision.

Clippers penalties and remaining questions

Unlike the City proceeding, the Clippers case has announced penalties. The NBA fined the team $30 million and took away five first-round draft picks, one each year from 2029 through 2033. It suspended owner Steve Ballmer from league and team activities for one year. Leonard must pay the league $700,000. The NBA also imposed unpaid suspensions of one year on business operations president Gillian Zucker and six months on basketball operations president Lawrence Frank, plus five years of league monitoring for the organisation and its personnel.

The NBA says it and the players’ union agreed that those penalties are final and binding on the parties. Its announcement also says investigators continue to receive information and the league may consider further action. That leaves open whether the NBA will take another step, but it does not change the penalties it has already announced. In City’s case, by comparison, a sanction hearing and the club’s opportunity to appeal are still ahead.

Guardian columnist Leander Schaerlaeckens described the two rulings as a rare instance of accountability for powerful owners. That is an interpretation of the cases, not a conclusion issued by either league. For readers assessing their practical effect, the clearest distinction is procedural: NBA punishment is specified, while the Premier League has established breaches but has yet to say what punishment, if any, will follow its commission’s findings.