Khaldoon Al Mubarak
Role at the time: Chairman of Manchester City, in an open letter to supporters
Response to this claim
Manchester City said on September 29, 2026 that the club "is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League," that "a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions," and that the commission's opinion "contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe."
“Here’s what I said to my family: The Premier League process still has a long way to run, and our confidence and intent in proving the Club’s innocence is just as strong as when this began. There are so many things that I would like to be able to share with you to help you understand why we feel so confident in our position. But the strict confidentiality of the legal process and our determination to respect it means I cannot do that at the moment. Even this letter underwent several legal checks to make sure it complies.”
Sports Mole's article printing the whole of Khaldoon Al Mubarak's open letter to City supporters, dated September 26, 2026, which responds to Friday's media reports of a verdict. The club's own page for the letter was not reachable to us, so the wording rests on this copy, the BBC Sport copy and wire excerpts that agree.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
Relative to the proposition that City used sponsorship contracts the commission described as shams, and related arrangements, to misstate its finances and circumvent the Premier League's financial rules, as the commission found, the chairman says the club's confidence in proving its innocence is as strong as when the case began and that the club feels confident in its position. That asserts innocence and rejects the reported finding, so we used Denied. The closest competing label is Mixed or conditional, because the letter looks ahead to proving innocence and was written before the commission's reasons were published.