Manchester City transfer fees reached 46 clubs during period covered by financial case

Manchester City paid senior-player transfer fees to 46 clubs across 19 national league systems from summer 2009 through January 2018, BBC Sport reported on 2 October 2026. The analysis shows how widely the club’s spending reached during the period covered by a Premier League commission’s financial-rule findings, but it does not show that any particular transfer was financed by the arrangements examined in that case.

BBC Sport says City spent roughly £1.2 billion on players over the nine-season period, or about £900 million after accounting for sales. The commission separately found that arrangements inflated the club’s reported revenue and reduced its costs by more than £900 million. Those similar-sized figures measure different things: one concerns transfer spending, while the other concerns the club’s accounts. Neither figure traces disputed funding to a selling club.

Which clubs received Manchester City transfer fees?

The BBC’s list covers payments for senior players and excludes free transfers, loans and academy graduates. It says just over a quarter of City’s transfer-fee outlay went to clubs in the English top flight. City signed players from eight Premier League clubs and eight La Liga clubs, while two Championship players cost a combined £13 million. The spread of recipients matters because the fees did not remain within one domestic competition.

A separate compilation by DELETE CITY puts City’s reported fees paid at £1,127.4 million and fees received at £226.2 million, producing a reported-fee net spend of £901.2 million. It assigns £315.5 million, or 28% of the fees paid, to clubs that were in the Premier League when they sold. That compilation identifies Everton, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Swansea City, Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers among those recipients. It also records two signings from Premier League clubs for which fees were undisclosed.

What happened after clubs sold to City?

BBC Sport notes that Wolfsburg signed Julian Draxler for about half the fee it received for De Bruyne, along with other players. Wolfsburg fell from second to eighth in the Bundesliga and narrowly avoided relegation in the following two seasons. Monaco signed Terence Kongolo and Keita Baldé after selling Silva and Mendy, then later faced relegation danger. Those sequences show what happened after the sales; they do not establish that the payments caused either club’s results.

Arsenal sold City four players during the period, more than any other club in the BBC’s analysis. Yet, as the BBC notes, Arsenal did not mount a serious Premier League title challenge in those years. A substantial fee could give a club resources to spend, but its later sporting record alone cannot show whether the sale helped it. Players lost, replacements signed and other decisions all matter to that question.

Some proceeds also reached clubs that did not sell directly to City. BBC Sport reports that Queens Park Rangers received roughly £9 million through a sell-on clause when Liverpool sold Raheem Sterling to City in 2015. Barnsley received about £7 million when Everton sold John Stones to City in 2016. The BBC says Barnsley had not subsequently sold a player for more than the amount believed to have come from the Stones deal. It also notes that QPR had not returned to the Premier League and Barnsley later dropped into League One. Those later outcomes cannot be attributed to the sell-on payments on this evidence.

What the Premier League findings establish

The Premier League says its independent commission found serious financial-rule breaches over the 2009/10 to 2017/18 seasons. According to the league, the commission found that sham commercial arrangements inflated revenue, reduced reported costs and led to misstated accounts. It said the arrangements changed the reported position by more than £900 million. The league’s account describes how the club recorded its finances; it does not identify particular transfer fees as proceeds of those arrangements.

Manchester City has appealed the findings, according to the Associated Press, and says the commission’s opinion contains material errors of law, principle and fact. The Premier League says a separate hearing will determine any sanction, with the process confidential until publication is permitted. For now, the recipient figures show the reach of City’s reported transfer spending. They do not establish where the money for an individual deal came from, or whether a receiving club’s later fortunes changed because of that payment.