Manchester City findings put nine sporting scandals back in focus

Manchester City has been found guilty of serious financial rule breaches by an independent Premier League commission, according to a league statement published on 29 September. The findings cover nine seasons, from 2009-10 to 2017-18. A sanction has yet to be decided, leaving the consequences for the club unresolved as BBC Sport revisits nine earlier scandals that changed careers, competitions and public trust.

What the Manchester City commission found

The Premier League says the commission upheld all charges concerning serious breaches of its financial rules and three of four alleged breaches of City’s duties to cooperate with its investigation. It found that some commercial contracts misrepresented the agreements behind them: sponsors paid only part of the recorded fees, while Abu Dhabi United Group, then the club’s owner, supplied the rest. The commission found that the arrangements inflated revenue and reduced costs by more than £900 million across the affected period.

The commission also found that City filed misstated accounts, concealed the true state of its finances from auditors and football regulators, and breached Premier League and UEFA spending limits. The league began investigating in December 2018, issued its complaint in February 2023 and says a 42-day commission hearing ended in December 2024. A separate hearing will decide sanctions. The league says City has the right to appeal the findings by 2 October; its published statement does not establish that a sanction or appeal outcome has already been reached.

Doping and manipulated tests: Armstrong and Sochi

Lance Armstrong won seven consecutive Tour de France titles between 1999 and 2005 while repeatedly denying that he used performance-enhancing drugs. As evidence and former teammates’ allegations mounted, he was stripped of those titles. He later admitted cheating in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, telling her that the decisions were his mistake. The admission followed years in which his survival of cancer and cycling success had made him one of sport’s best-known figures, BBC Sport recounts.

Match fixing, a deliberate crash and switched-off lights

South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje’s reputation collapsed after a police wiretap caught him discussing fixes with a bookmaker. BBC Sport says he had taken inducements connected to matches, including a rain-affected Test against England in 2000. Cronje confessed and was banned from cricket for life. The case centred on an athlete with direct influence over play, unlike the accounting arrangements at issue in Manchester City’s case.

Formula One’s 2008 Singapore Grand Prix produced another kind of manipulation. Nelson Piquet Jr later said he had deliberately crashed his Renault, triggering a safety car that helped teammate Fernando Alonso win. BBC Sport says Alonso was cleared of knowledge of the plot, while team principal Flavio Briatore and chief technical officer Pat Symonds were banned from Formula One for several years. The distinction between the driver who crashed, the officials sanctioned and the teammate cleared matters when describing who was responsible.

In English football, a betting syndicate interfered with matches by cutting stadium floodlights. BBC Sport describes power failures during Premier League fixtures at Upton Park in 1997 and Selhurst Park the following month, intended to get matches abandoned at profitable scorelines. A further attempt at Charlton Athletic was stopped after a staff member alerted police. Four men received prison sentences of between 18 months and four years for their roles.

An attack, an ineligible team and a disputed World Series

American figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was struck on the leg with a baton before the 1994 US championships. She recovered and won silver at the Winter Olympics. BBC Sport says rival Tonya Harding was banned for life after admitting that she tried to conceal the attacker’s identity. Harding’s ex-husband and others involved in the attack also went to prison. The established consequences should not be confused with a claim that Harding personally carried out the assault.

Spain’s intellectual-disability basketball team won gold at the 2000 Paralympics, but 10 of its 12 players had no intellectual impairment, according to the BBC account. One of those players, journalist Carlos Ribagorda, disclosed the scheme after the Games. Spain was stripped of the medals. The fallout extended beyond that team: the category was excluded from the 2004 and 2008 Paralympics, affecting athletes who had played no part in the deception.

The 1919 Chicago White Sox case shows why criminal verdicts and sporting penalties must be kept distinct. Eight players were accused of accepting bribes to lose the World Series to Cincinnati. A criminal court did not convict them, but Major League Baseball banned them for life, BBC Sport recounts. Joe Jackson maintained that he was not involved. The bans stood despite the failure to secure criminal convictions.

How Calciopoli changed Italian club football

Italian football’s Calciopoli affair involved efforts to influence referees. BBC Sport says Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio and Reggina were implicated and all received points deductions. Juventus alone dropped into Serie B, then returned to the top division at its first attempt. Some prominent players left while others stayed. The case illustrates that disciplinary findings can produce different penalties across clubs within the same scandal.

These nine cases span individual doping, betting, eligibility, officiating and deliberate interference with competition. Manchester City’s case concerns club financial reporting and cooperation with a league investigation. Its commission has made findings, but the Premier League says the sanction will be determined separately and City can appeal. Until those stages conclude, the finding and its eventual sporting consequence remain separate parts of the story.