Manchester City's treble in the 2022-23 season marked the pinnacle of the club's transformation under Abu Dhabi ownership. Since the Sheikh Mansour-led takeover in 2008, City have swept up trophies and signed stars but been in regular conflict with football authorities over spending.
Takeover and early spending
On a dramatic transfer deadline day in September 2008, the Abu Dhabi United Group (Adug) agreed a £200m takeover of Manchester City. The group, led by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan – a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family – bought 90% of the club from Thaksin Shinawatra. The new owners made an immediate impact with the £32.5m signing of Robinho from Real Madrid before the transfer window closed.
In August 2009, having signed Vincent Kompany and Pablo Zabaleta before the takeover, Mark Hughes added Nigel de Jong (£16m) and Craig Bellamy (£14.5m) in January 2009, but City only finished 10th. In the summer window, Gareth Barry (£12m), Joleon Lescott (£22m) and Emmanuel Adebayor (£25m) arrived. City's move to take former Manchester United forward Carlos Tevez (£25.5m) – complete with provocative poster – led Sir Alex Ferguson to dub them “noisy neighbours”.
Mancini era and first trophies
In December 2009, Mark Hughes was sacked and replaced by Roberto Mancini. Form improved but City missed out on the top four after a home defeat to Tottenham. In the summer, a number of big names arrived – Yaya Toure, David Silva and Mario Balotelli (costing £24m each), plus James Milner in a deal worth £18m. In August 2010, Sheikh Mansour attended his first (and still only) City home game, a 3-0 victory over Liverpool.
With the addition of Edin Dzeko (£27m) in January 2011, Mancini steered City to a third-place finish and a first Champions League campaign. In the FA Cup, Touré’s winner stunned United in the semi-final and the Ivorian struck again in the final against Stoke. Victory ended a 35-year wait for a major trophy – and marked the end of an infamous Old Trafford banner.
Title glory and FFP introduction
Having first been established in September 2009, financial fair play (FFP) rules were introduced by Uefa for the 2011-12 season. City offered an early test of the new system, announcing a 10-year sponsorship deal with Etihad Airways (the UAE’s national airline) in July 2011. City’s home ground was renamed the Etihad Stadium as part of the deal.
With club-record signing Sergio Agüero (£38m) and Samir Nasri (£24m) arriving in the summer of 2011, City emerged as title contenders and thrashed United 6-1 at Old Trafford. Things didn’t go so well in Europe, and Carlos Tevez went awol after a row with Mancini. United pulled eight points clear at the top, but Tevez returned and a 1-0 win over Ferguson’s men at the Etihad put City back on top. They needed to beat QPR at home on the final day but headed into stoppage time 2-1 down; Dzeko nodded in an equaliser before Agüero scored in the 94th minute to win the title and spark pandemonium.
Pellegrini and Uefa sanctions
Mancini’s second season began with questionable deadline-day signings – Jack Rodwell, Javi García and Scott Sinclair arrived for a combined £35m. A disappointing campaign ended with United reclaiming the title and defeat to Wigan in the FA Cup final. City sacked the Italian, one year and a day after he won the title. His replacement, Manuel Pellegrini, was hired from Málaga. Tevez joined Adebayor and Balotelli in leaving the club, with the arrival of Fernandinho (£30m) signalling a new approach.
Having previously held discussions with MLS chiefs while at Barcelona, Ferran Soriano – who became City’s CEO in August 2012 – was approached about investing in an expansion team. City invested $100m, alongside the New York Yankees, to launch New York City FC. The club also created the City Football Group (CFG), an umbrella company to manage a planned multi-club ownership model. Meanwhile in the Premier League, profit and sustainability rules (PSR) were brought in for the 2013-14 season, mirroring Uefa’s FFP guidelines.
Pellegrini led City to the league title when Liverpool slipped up on the home straight and took them into the Champions League knockouts for the first time. They suffered a chastening defeat to Barcelona in the last 16, but the new manager also won the League Cup, beating Sunderland 3-1 in the final.
Days after securing the title, City reluctantly accepted a conditional €60m (£49m) Uefa fine after recording combined losses of over £150m in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons. The club were also restricted to a 21-man European squad and £49m net spend over the next season – but had the opportunity to recoup two-thirds of the penalty by meeting future targets.
Guardiola arrival and domestic dominance
The 2014-15 season ended without a trophy. City finished second to Chelsea in the league and were beaten by Barcelona again in Europe. Big-money buys Eliaquim Mangala (£41m) and Wilfried Bony (£25m) flopped. Despite an underwhelming campaign and links to Pep Guardiola, Pellegrini extended his deal to June 2017, and was backed with new attacking recruits Raheem Sterling (£44m) and Kevin De Bruyne (£55m).
CFG announced a £265m deal with Chinese investors CMC for a 13% stake in the club. Khaldoon al-Mubarak, City’s chairman, said the deal would “leverage the incredible potential that exists in China”. CFG had by this stage added A-League club Melbourne City and Japan’s Yokohama F Marinos to the fold, and also made Manchester City’s affiliate women’s team part of the group.
Pellegrini’s team laboured to fourth place in the league and the Chilean confirmed in February he would leave at the end of the season. It was quickly revealed that his replacement would be Guardiola. Pellegrini led City to the Champions League semi-finals – where they lost narrowly to Real Madrid – and beat Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool in the League Cup final.
Guardiola was reunited with Soriano and director of football Txiki Begiristain, who brought in John Stones (£47.5m), Leroy Sané (£37m) and Ilkay Gündogan (£20m) to bolster the squad. Guardiola’s first season in charge was a disappointment, though, with City finishing third in the league and crashing out of the Champions League last 16 to Monaco.
Der Spiegel and Uefa ban
The German magazine Der Spiegel published emails obtained by Rui Pinto’s Football Leaks website alleging Manchester City’s owners had broken Uefa’s FFP regulations. The report claimed that Sheikh Mansour was mostly funding Etihad’s £67.5m sponsorship deal and that Mancini had received extra payments through a second contract. Uefa launched an investigation, while City denounced the emails as “out-of-context materials purportedly hacked or stolen”, and alleged an “organised attempt to damage the club’s reputation”.
Several key players arrived in the summer of 2017, including Kyle Walker (£45m), Bernardo Silva (£43m) and goalkeeper Ederson (£35m) – plus Benjamin Mendy (£49.3m). City then broke their transfer record in January, signing Aymeric Laporte from Athletic Bilbao (£57m). Guardiola’s team were transformed in his second full season, racing to City’s third Premier League title with 100 points – a new top-flight record. The League Cup was also won, but Liverpool sent City out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage.
City signed winger Riyad Mahrez from Leicester in the summer of 2018 for £60m, a new club record. City prevailed in a thrilling title race with Liverpool, retained the League Cup and won the FA Cup, beating Watford 6-0 in the final to complete a domestic treble. Off the pitch, Uefa began an investigation into the Der Spiegel allegations, with the court of arbitration for sport (Cas) rejecting City’s first appeal in November 2019. In the same month, US private equity group Silver Lake made a $500m investment in the club.
In a bombshell announcement, Uefa banned City from the Champions League for two seasons and fined the club €30m (£25m) after they were found to have broken FFP rules and misled European football’s governing body. City vowed to take the case to Cas “at the earliest opportunity”. Weeks later, the season ground to a halt as the Covid pandemic hit Europe.
Cas appeal and continued success
As football returned behind closed doors, City won their appeal with Cas and Uefa’s ban was lifted. A three-person panel concluded “most of the alleged breaches were either not established or time-barred,” and reduced the fine to €10m (£9m) for failing to cooperate with investigations by Uefa’s club financial control body. On the pitch, City finished a distant second to Liverpool in the title race and crashed out of the Champions League with a quarter-final defeat to Lyon in Lisbon. New record signing Rodri (£62.8m) struggled to replace Fernandinho in City’s midfield.
The 2020-21 season saw City reassert dominance in the Premier League, finishing 12 points clear of United. A fourth League Cup in a row was also won, but a first-ever Champions League final trip ended in a 1-0 defeat to Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea. Rúben Dias (£62.1m) and Nathan Aké (£40m) were new defensive recruits, and the club made nearly £18m in profit on Sané’s move to Bayern. In April 2021 City were revealed to be one of six Premier League clubs signed up to the breakaway European Super League. It collapsed within 48 hours after an outcry. City followed Chelsea in withdrawing from the project as fans protested against the move.
City smashed their transfer record by paying £100m to sign Jack Grealish from Aston Villa. They later sold Raheem Sterling to Chelsea for £47.5m, while in the winter Ferran Torres joined Barcelona netting City a £27.5m profit. Another epic title battle with Liverpool ended with City on top, winning 93 points to 92. In the Champions League, Real Madrid produced a late fightback to deny City a place in the final. Off the field, Der Spiegel reported that the Premier League had been investigating City’s potential FFP breaches for three years, and Guardiola said he would leave if he felt lied to by the club.
Premier League charges and treble
In an announcement on their website, the Premier League listed 115 charges against City, to be adjudicated upon at an independent hearing. The number of potential breaches was revised to more than 130 across nine seasons, including: 54 breaches of failing to provide accurate and up-to-date financial information, 14 breaches of failing to provide accurate player and manager compensation reports, five breaches of failing to comply with Uefa’s regulations, including FFP, seven breaches of Premier League profitability and sustainability regulations, and 35 breaches of failing to cooperate with Premier League investigations.
City’s ownership responded to the Premier League’s charges, referring to a “body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position”. On the pitch, Guardiola’s players only became more focused, winning 12 league games in a row to overtake Arsenal in the title race, and adding the FA Cup with victory over United at Wembley. Erling Haaland (£51.2m) enjoyed an extraordinary first season at the club, scoring 52 goals. It was Rodri, now the team’s most crucial player, who scored in Istanbul to beat Inter as City finally got their hands on the Champions League trophy and completed the treble.
Four in a row and legal battles
City continued to spend after winning the treble, signing Josko Gvardiol (£77.5m) and Jérémy Doku (£55.4m). The sales of Mahrez and Laporte to Saudi sides and underused youngster Cole Palmer to Chelsea helped balance the books. City again overhauled Arsenal to win an unprecedented fourth English title in a row. In La Liga, CFG partner club Girona finished in the top four and were cleared by Uefa to compete in the Champions League. CFG now includes 12 football clubs across the globe. Girona star Savinho, who is owned by fellow CFG club Troyes, joined City in the summer of 2024 for £30m. City sold Júlian Álvarez to Atlético for €75m (£64.4m), then a club-record sale.
After the Premier League chief, Richard Masters, suggested “the time is right” to resolve the charges against City, a private hearing began in London. David Pannick KC led the club’s defence in front of an independent commission; the hearing ended on 6 December. In a separate legal case raised in June 2024, City challenged the Premier League’s new associated party transaction (APT) rules, designed to limit teams’ ability to buy players from, or strike sponsorship deals with, parties related to their ownership. In October, City claimed victory on two key issues and asserted that the rules were “found to be unlawful”. The Premier League took a different view, claiming that the ruling “upheld the need for the APT system”.
Recent struggles and verdict
After an unbeaten start to their title defence, City lost 2-0 at Bournemouth in early November and went on a run of one win in 13 games in all competitions before beating Leicester on 29 December. Even a new contract extension for Guardiola could not stop the rot, with the team falling out of the title race and in a battle to reach the Champions League knockout stages. With a verdict on the Premier League’s charges supposedly imminent, City claimed a decisive victory in their separate battle over APT rules, as a tribunal found the league’s original rules to be “void and unenforceable”. On the field, despite an outlay of over £170m in January to sign four new players, City were dumped out of the Champions League by Real Madrid. Guardiola said he expected a verdict “in one month”, but that proved to be wide of the mark.
City’s season ended with a painful FA Cup final defeat to Crystal Palace, and their Club World Cup trip was abruptly ended by Al-Hilal in the last 16. With a verdict – or even a potential date for one – still yet to arrive, the club invested in a squad overhaul. Around £175m was spent on new signings, with close to £80m recouped through player sales. City lost two of their first three Premier League games, at home to Spurs and away at Brighton. Having failed to keep pace with league leaders Arsenal, City spent £85m in January to sign the Palace defender Marc Guéhi and the Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo. With at least 10 first-team players signed in 13 months, City’s squad rebuild appeared complete – but speculation swirled that Guardiola could call time on his tenure at the end of the season.
City won both domestic cups, defeating Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final and seeing off Chelsea in the FA Cup, with Semenyo scoring the winner. Arsenal prevailed in the title race, however, and Guardiola confirmed his departure before the final league game of the season, against Villa. The Etihad Stadium’s North Stand was renamed in his honour, and his former assistant Enzo Maresca was lined up to replace Guardiola in the dugout. Maresca’s first window saw more big spending, headlined by a British transfer-record equalling move for Enzo Fernández. More than three and a half years after the charges were brought, reports emerged of a verdict. City were reported to have been found guilty of all but one charge of more than 100 breaches, but with no immediate details of any sanctions.
