Manchester City are under investigation over alleged payments to Roberto Mancini and underage players – as well as over sponsorship deals signed by the club – Der Spiegel has claimed after publishing bombshell new accusations against them.
The German outlet claimed to know details of the Premier League’s three-year long probe into the English champions as it laid out fresh allegations of wrongdoing based on an analysis of documents obtained via Football Leaks.
Der Spiegel claimed the investigation focused on three areas: underage players were allegedly pressured to sign contracts with City through monetary payments; club sponsors in Abu Dhabi are suspected of having provided only a portion of their payments to the club themselves, with the majority apparently coming from owner Sheikh Mansour; Roberto Mancini, City’s manager between 2009-13, is thought to have received a significant portion of his compensation secretly by way of a fictitious consultancy contract.
The claims were made on the same day Uefa announced a major overhaul of rules brought in to police overspending by clubs, rules that saw City fined in 2014 and banned from the Champions League for two years in 2020, only for the latter verdict to be overturned on appeal.
The ban had been triggered by allegations made by Der Spiegel based on documents it obtained via Football Leaks.
New allegations published on Thursday included that illicit payments appeared to have been made by City in 2013 in relation to a 14-year-old.
The club were banned from signing academy players in 2017 for tapping-up two schoolboys – including one aged just 11.
Thursday also saw Der Spiegel publish a cache of what it said were leaked documents related to matters under investigation by the Premier League.
The latter’s current probe into City was opened in December 2018, sparking a legal battle that reached the Court of Appeal last year and saw a judge voice concern over the length of time the investigation was taking.
The Premier League and City declined to comment on Thursday on the latest claims by Der Spiegel.
The club have responded previously to material obtained via Football Leaks by saying: “We will not be providing any comment on out-of-context materials purportedly hacked or stolen from City Football Group and Manchester City personnel and associated people.
“The attempt to damage the club’s reputation is organised and clear.”
Meanwhile, Uefa on Thursday warned that any team found in breach of its new spending rules would face more than just Champions League expulsion.
Andrea Traverso, the organisation’s financial sustainability director, made the threat after it ratified changes to limit spending on wages, transfer costs and agents’ fees to 70 per cent of a club’s revenue from June, with permitted losses over a three-year period up doubling to almost £50 million.
He said: “If you are circumventing the rules, it might lead the clubs to breach national tax regulations and be under the authority of other bodies, not just sporting governing bodies. We believe the deterrent is much higher with the new rules than it was before.
“In the end, our capacity of investigations is somewhat limited as we are not the police but we believe it is becoming more and more difficult for clubs to go around them.”
