Verdict exposes 'sham' sponsorship deals worth £830m

An independent commission has found Manchester City guilty of all but one of the financial breach charges brought against them by the Premier League, concluding that the club cheated deliberately and then sought to cover it up through a campaign of what the panel described as calculated misinformation.

Even after Friday's revelation that City had been found guilty of all but one of the charges, it was perhaps difficult to grasp the scale of what that meant. After the publication of the independent commission's findings, there can be no doubt: the commission found that Manchester City cheated, that they did so deliberately, and that they have sought to cover that up with a campaign of calculated misinformation.

City continue to maintain their innocence and issued a statement insisting that