De Bruyne, Džeko and Sané - Is Manchester City’s Bundesliga shopping spree under scrutiny? | OneFootball

Manchester City signed five players from Bundesliga clubs between 2010 and 2016, spending around €204.5 million in total.

The deals included Jérôme Boateng from Hamburg (€12.5m), Edin Džeko from Wolfsburg (€37m), Kevin De Bruyne from Wolfsburg (€76m), Leroy Sané from Schalke (€52m) and İlkay Gündogan from Borussia Dortmund (€27m).

All five transfers took place during the period now covered by the Premier League’s financial case against City.

However, there is currently no finding that any of these individual transfers was illegal.

The Premier League’s independent commission found that City had breached financial rules by misrepresenting its finances. According to the findings, the club used sponsorship agreements to artificially increase its reported revenue and reduce its costs. The disputed amount was more than £900 million between 2009/10 and 2017/18.

The commission also found that City had submitted inaccurate financial information and breached its duty to cooperate with the investigation. The club rejects the findings and plans to appeal.

Were the Bundesliga transfers illegal?

Not according to the findings published so far.

The ruling does not say that Wolfsburg, Hamburg, Schalke or Dortmund received illegal transfer payments. Nor does it state that the transfer fees were fake or that the players were improperly registered.

The key issue is therefore not whether the five transfers themselves were legal, but whether City could have made the same level of investment while complying with the financial rules.

The commission found that, had City reported its finances correctly, the club would have breached the relevant spending limits by a substantial amount.

That makes the Bundesliga deals relevant to the wider case - but it does not make them illegal in retrospect.

What happens next?

The financial case is not over. Manchester City can appeal the findings, while the question of any punishment remains to be decided.

Possible sanctions under Premier League rules include financial penalties and sporting sanctions. No final punishment has been announced, and there has been no ruling to remove titles or cancel any of the five Bundesliga transfers.

For now, the key fact is simple: City spent around €204.5 million on five Bundesliga players during a period in which an independent commission found serious financial rule breaches. But there is no finding that those five transfers themselves were unlawful.