Aguero, De Bruyne, among 30 players Man City bought with sham sponsor money | OneFootball

Manchester City’s ‘sham’ sponsorship deals paid for their entire transfer business in three of the nine seasons probed by the Premier League, while their ill-gotten gains also paid for many of their biggest stars.

The Premier League confirmed on Tuesday that an independent commission has found City guilty of all charges related to breaches of financial rules between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons.

City, who will appeal, were ruled to have arranged “sham contracts” as well as “relying on sham agreements to artificially inflate the club’s revenues and reduce its costs”.

Over the period investigated, City forked out almost £1.2billion in transfer fees for new signings, while the ‘sham’ sponsorships, made of money from their owners as part of a “disguised funding scheme”, inflated the club’s revenue by £830.69million.

That figure accounts for 69 per cent of their total transfer spend.

The Premier League’s investigation showed how City’s owners artificially inflated revenue with sham sponsorships each season.

For three seasons, between 2012 and 2015, those funds could have paid for all of the players signed by City.

In the six other seasons, the extra sponsorship money injected by their owners paid for some of the biggest stars who contributed to City’s success during the nine seasons scrutinised and the seven subsequent seasons since.

Here is a breakdown of each season’s sham sponsorship funds and the players it might have paid for…

2009/10 Recorded sponsorship fees: £27m Genuine fees received: £4.5m Added by owners: £22.5m

Signing bought with ‘sham’ money: Joleon Lescott (£22m)

Bought from Everton in August 2009, the England defender made 16 appearances for City, winning two Premier League titles, an FA Cup and a League Cup.

Other signings: Gareth Barry (£12m), Roque Santa Cruz (£18m), Stuart Taylor (free), Carlos Tevez (£25.5m), Emmanuel Adebayor (£25m), Kolo Toure (£16m), Sylvinho (free), Patrick Vieira (free), Adam Johnson (£7m)

2010/11 Recorded sponsorship fees: £41.25m Genuine fees received: £12.75m Added by owners: £28.5m

Sham signing: Edin Dzeko (£27m)

Signed from Wolfsburg mid-season, the Bosnia striker scored a huge, late equaliser in the Agueeeeerrrroooooo game on the way to the first of two Premier League titles. Dzeko also won an FA Cup and a League Cup.

Other signings: Jerome Boateng (£10m), Yaya Toure (£24m), David Silva (£24m), Aleksandar Kolarov (£16m), Mario Balotelli (£24m), James Milner (£18m)

2011/12 Recorded sponsorship fees: £86.75m Genuine fees received: £16m Added by owners: £70.75m

Aguero arrived from Atletico in 2011 and went on to become City’s greatest-ever goalscorer with 260 goals in 10 seasons, including that one, on the way to a statue and five Premier League titles. Nasri and Clichy won four titles between them, with City also weakening rivals Arsenal by taking both from Arsene Wenger.

Other signings: Stefan Savic (£15m), Owen Hargreaves (free), Costel Pantilimon (£3m)

2012/13 Recorded sponsorship fees: £121.75m Genuine fees received: £16m Added by owners: £105.75m

Sham signings: Jack Rodwell (£12m), Richard Wright (free), Scott Sinclair (£6.2m), Maicon (£5m), Matija Nastasic (£12m), Javi Garcia (£17m) – total: £52.2million

Not the most successful season for recruitment, but their entire transfer spend as Premier League champions accounts for only half of the total figure received in sham sponsorships.

2013/14 Recorded sponsorship fees: £127.5m Genuine fees received: £16m Added by owners: £111.5m

Sham signings: Fernandinho (£30m), Jesus Navas (£14.9m), Alvaro Negredo (£20m), Stevan Jovetic (£22m), Martin Demichelis (£4m) – total: £90.9million

Once again, City’s entire transfer spend for 2013/14, a season in which they won the title under Manuel Pellegrini as well as the League Cup, totals less than the figure added by their owners to genuine sponsorships (worth just £16million). The £30million spent on Fernandinho, who went on to become a City legend, amounts to just 3.6 per cent of the total City received in sham sponsorships between 2009 and 2018.

2014/15 Recorded sponsorship fees: £123.2m Genuine fees received: £16m Added by owners: £107.2m

Sham signings: Eliaquim Mangala (£41.9m), Wilfried Bony (£25m), Fernando (£12m), Willy Caballero (£4.4m), Bruno Zuculini (£1.5m) – total: £84.8million

Other signings: Bacary Sagna (free), Frank Lampard (free)

Again, not the most fruitful season for City from a recruitment perspective, but what does it really matter when your owner is back-channelling the entire cost plus another £22million more?

2015/16 Recorded sponsorship fees: £136.17m Genuine fees paid: £16m Added by owners: £120.17m

Sham signings: Kevin De Bruyne (£55m), Raheem Sterling (£44m), Fabian Delph (£8m), Patrick Roberts (12m) – total: £119million

Khaldoon Al Mubarak reckons De Bruyne is City’s greatest ever player – another honoured with a statue. The Belgian is a two-time PFA Player of the Year and the creative force behind six Premier League titles, one Champions League, two FA Cups, and five League Cups. Sterling also won four Premier League titles and six domestics cups in seven seasons with City. Delph was more of a peripheral figure but he still took a couple of title winner’s medals when he left for Everton.

Other signings: Nicolas Otamendi (£28.4m)

2016/17 Recorded sponsorship fees: £140.59m Genuine fees received: £11m Added by owners: £129.59m

Sham signings: John Stones (£47.5m), Leroy Sane (£37m), Gabriel Jesus (£27m), Ilkay Gundogan (£20m) – total: £131.5million

The quartet, good for 17 Premier League title winner’s medals between them, were signed in Pep Guardiola’s first summer in charge at City. They all cost just under £2million more than the sham sponsorships paid. Take it off the surplus below…

Other signings: Nolito (£13.8m), Oleksandr Zinchenko (£1.7m), Marlos Moreno (£4.75m), Claudio Bravo (£15.4m)

2017/18 Recorded sponsorship fees: £145.73m Genuine fees received: £11m Added by owners: £134.73m

City’s sham sponsorship money in 2017/18 more than paid for three players who contributed so much to all of the honours won under Guardiola. Just in 2017/18, this trio helped Pep’s side set a number of Premier League records, including: most points (100), most away points (50), most points ahead of second (19 clear of Jose Mourinho’s Man Utd), most wins (32), most away wins (16), most goals (106), best goal difference (+79) and most consecutive victories (18).

Other signings: Aymeric Laporte (£57m), Benjamin Mendy (£49.3m), Danilo (£26.5m)