Richard Masters is a British football executive who has been chief executive of the Premier League since December 2019. He joined the league in 2006 as director of sales and marketing, after earlier commercial roles at the English Football League and the England and Wales Cricket Board, and was interim chief executive before his permanent appointment.
Case
An independent commission found Manchester City arranged "sham" sponsorship contracts to disguise owner funding between 2009/10 and 2017/18. City denies it, says the decision is unsafe and will appeal. As of October 1, 2026, no sanction has been set.
Role at the time: Chief executive of the Premier League, in the league's published statement
Response to this claim
The Premier League said on September 29, 2026 that an independent commission found that between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons Manchester City arranged "sham" contracts with a number of its commercial partners as part of a disguised funding scheme, in which the sponsors were required to pay only a portion of the relevant fees and Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd, which owned the club, funded the remainder, and that "by its conduct the club clearly intended to circumvent the PL Rules."
“The core decision establishes the facts of what happened at Manchester City during this period. It details how the club systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade. It also vindicates the Premier League’s decision to pursue this case against Manchester City.”
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, Masters presents the decision as establishing the facts and says it vindicates the league's decision to bring the case. That asserts and endorses the finding, so we used Condemned. The closest competing label is Mixed or conditional, because the statement says elements of the case remain to be decided, but those elements are the sanction and the appeal, not the finding.
Statement dates: September 29, 2026
Statement dates: September 29, 2026
