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Matthias Jaissle has been a man in a hurry.

Appointed by Newcastle United in a whirlwind summer of change, his in-tray has been so loaded that he only moved out of a hotel into his new home this week.

In these early days, his interactions with journalists – short answers, matter-of-fact delivery – were viewed as a man laying down a marker. A lot of fans seemed to take to the “Newcastle’s new man takes no prisoners” vibe.

But Jaissle was misunderstood. By his own admission his “guard is up” when making new acquaintances (just ask his supermodel girlfriend Lisa Czetsch, he chuckles) but a few weeks into his Tyneside tenure, that is starting to change. It is clear there is much more to Jaissle than meets the eye.

In the middle week of a super-sized international break, he is happy to open up a bit more. Inviting north-East media to the club’s training ground for breakfast and to observe part of training was his idea, we are told, and he is an interested host, asking questions and listening intently to the answers.

But the real value of the morning is the level of insight into the man charged with leading “Newcastle 2.0”, the project that is seeking to reposition the Magpies as consistent challengers by prodding a hard reset on their recruitment and squad profile.

The moments that made him

There are plenty of revelations – not least about the level of adversity Jaissle has come.

Aged five, he says, he was diagnosed with a tumour on his neck that left him fearful he would never be able to play football.

Then, at Hoffenheim, he suffered a devastating ACL and MCL injury when on the brink of a call-up to the Germany squad that left him in a wheelchair for more than four months and briefly “lost and depressed”.

These setbacks helped fire the “hunger” that has been so evident on the touchline at St James’ Park.

“When I think back, there have been many moments that have shaped my career,” he said.

“I had a tumour in my neck when I was five years old and I couldn’t move it from side to side. I learned a lot about life then – how important it is to be healthy and how grateful you should be to be healthy and to follow your dream. It was not clear I would be able to play football at that age.

“Unfortunately, I was also really unlucky with injuries. When I was 16, I missed a whole year through injury and that gave me the discipline to fight.

“Then when I made my debut for Hoffenheim after only eight months I ruptured my ACL, my meniscus, the cartilage, everything. I was done. I knew then it could be difficult to carry on playing at the highest level. I was only 20 and was about to be called into the national team for the first time.”

Stopped too soon

In his heart of hearts Jaissle knew that the doctors who hinted – gently – that he should start studying to start a career in something else were probably right.

But he was determined to “keep his dream alive”, believing for “longer than the doctors did”.

“I was forced to quit and I was also struggling for a couple of months.

“I was really down, [it was] tough to get motivated, tough to get your own rhythm again.

“As a footballer, they tell you from morning till evening, and then you lose that structure, so it was not easy.”

Life under Rangnick

He had considered becoming a sporting director or agent, but embarked on a training programme at RB Leipzig under former Manchester United manager and current Austria coach Ralf Rangnick.

The idea was to rotate through different departments – six weeks in marketing, six weeks in the commercial department – but he loved coaching so much that Sebastian Hoeness, the Stuttgart coach and Jaissle’s former Hoffenheim teammate, suggested he stay in the dugout.

“I fell in love. After two weeks I felt, ‘Wow, I have joy back in life, not only studying and reading. I have a new purpose’,” he said.

It is nice stuff and explains why he is not taking anything at Newcastle for granted.

Employed a fortnight before the start of the season, his eagerness to get going impressed the St James’ Park hierarchy.

But he is smart and his confidence should not disguise that he knows how big the challenge is.

Far from the finished article

And it has not been easy. Jaissle has been happy with a start in which the Magpies are ninth in the Premier League, but they are far from the finished article.

During the international break, Jaissle’s coaching staff have taken part in a deep data dive on what has happened this season. He leans heavily on a large team of analysts and, when we observe training later, two drones fly overhead to monitor a short, sharp session focused on positioning and movement.

Newcastle are getting results, but not playing as well as he would like. The pressing part of their game is good, but they are too high in the table for “critical ball losses” – in short they win the ball back but lose it far too quickly. Unforced errors and turnovers are a problem.

But they are a young team. Take Sean Steur, for example. He is 18 and from the Ajax academy, where playing diagonally is an anathema.

He is smart enough and good enough to adapt – and Jaissle loves his willingness to take risks even when he has made a mistake – but the whole vibe is different to working with “oven ready” 29-year-olds.

Seeing the bigger picture

Nights like when Newcastle were well beaten at Elland Road in the middle of September, are part of the price of the ticket.

“There were elements in games where we saw a lot of the things we were looking for,” Jaissle said.

“There were also phases in games where we were not happy and satisfied. So there’s still a lot of potential that we can improve.

“We need to remind ourselves always, because we have these high demands, that we are not long here now and we haven’t had too much training time.

“So it was tough. It’s really tough, tougher than expected, to get the stuff and the principles implemented into the player’s head.”

But belief in the bigger project remains. “My style will work anywhere,” he insists.

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There is also a kinship developing with his new city.

After Newcastle beat Hull City 2-1 last time out, he went out for dinner with his coaching staff and was stopped for a photograph by a group of supporters out for a birthday meal. He obliged and then bought the fan his dinner.

“It’s crazy how everything comes out but I really love the fans here and the people,” he says.

“They’re passionate but have a good sense of allowing you to keep your privacy and your distance. They’re respectful and ask if they can get a picture.

“They’re just good people.”

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Now that the sheer scale of Manchester City’s financial breaches has been exposed, it is time for reparations. There are clubs who will seek compensation for the advantage gained from City’s financial doping. But the man who coined that phrase deserves something more valuable than money. He deserves his reputation back.

Arsene Wenger was in Kuala Lumpur on one of those big summer tours he always fought against because playing in 34-degree heat and 82 per cent humidity is not the best way to prepare for an English winter. But it was 2011 and Arsenal needed the money. There were new challenges from freshly wealthy clubs, chief among them Manchester City.

In Malaysia, Wenger focused on the 10-year £400m sponsorship deal with Etihad Airways that would rename the City of Manchester Stadium. As the deal was worth more than 45 times Etihad’s annual profit, Wenger was suspicious. Emirates paid Arsenal £90m over 15 years. Wenger argued the Etihad agreement drove a truck through what was then called financial fair play.

Nothing was done.

In this, Wenger resembles another Frenchman, Christophe Bassons, who during the 1999 Tour de France used his column in Le Parisien to highlight his concerns about doping in the race. He was ostracised by much of the peloton and eventually left the Tour after being told by his team to stop speaking to the media about doping.

Wenger did not leave. He continued to pedal furiously as the leaders pulled away, season by season, transfer deal by transfer deal.

Of course, Wenger stayed too long, measuring his success in FA Cups rather than league titles. Even had Manchester City been removed from the equation, he would not have won another Premier League title.

But it might explain why Sir Alex Ferguson warmed to him in their later years. Ferguson, who once never missed an opportunity for a barbed comment towards the Arsenal manager, came to treat Wenger as a kindred spirit.

Wenger would joke: “It is because I am no longer a threat to him.” But there may have been another reason: Ferguson saw the Arsenal manager as an ally against a common enemy, his noisy and newly wealthy neighbours.

It was in another Kuala Lumpur hotel room, two years before Wenger attacked the Etihad deal, that Ferguson launched a denunciation of Carlos Tevez’s move from United to City.

He would have known the details of the contract, even if we did not: £10m a year for five years, £1m if City made the Champions League and £2m if they won the league. There was a £7.5m signing-on fee and a £7.5m loyalty bonus, which the Argentine did his best not to earn.

All of it was ridiculously unaffordable by any normal Premier League club. All of it was made possible by the money flowing out of Abu Dhabi.

None of his titles will have an asterisk beside them

In terms of trophies, Arsenal were not the club most affected by that money.

If you declared all of City’s results void between 2009 and 2018, the years covered by the charges, only Manchester United and Liverpool would have become champions. The club that arguably lost the most money would have been Tottenham, who would have qualified for the Champions League on four separate occasions.

Yet Wenger spent most of his managerial career battling against financial doping. His big break came when he took a Glenn Hoddle-inspired Monaco to the French title in 1988.

However, despite the glut of millionaires in the principality, the sporting focus was always on Formula One and Wenger’s Monaco was eclipsed by Marseille, an altogether bigger club funded by the media mogul and improbable socialist politician Bernard Tapie.

Wenger loathed losing. He once spent Christmas alone because his first club, Nancy, had lost before the winter break. But he especially loathed losing to a club that employed corruption as a weapon, once nearly coming to blows with Tapie in the tunnel at Marseille’s Stade Velodrome.

In 1993, cash worth £60,000 was found buried in a garden belonging to a Valenciennes player, one of several Tapie had bribed to allow Marseille to win the title. Tapie went to prison and Marseille were relegated.

Nobody at the Etihad will be jailed, but relegation is the least Manchester City can expect.

Read more

• Revealed: The punishments Man City’s rivals want handed down
• Opinion: Throw the book at Man City – and force the owners out

Roman Abramovich, the governor of Chukotka who somehow ended up owning the natural gas produced in that part of Siberia, caused Wenger more pain than Sheikh Mansour. The 2003 transfer window, when Chelsea spent £100m in two months, changed football.

Arsenal would be champions that season, but it would be their last stand. Abramovich’s money and the cost of moving from Highbury to the Emirates soon told.

When Wenger retired, he was regarded as a relic who had not won a championship for 14 years and who should have won more than three of them. Perhaps. But none of his titles will have an asterisk beside them.

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PRAGUE — Trent Alexander-Arnold and Thomas Tuchel’s tumultuous relationship is fascinating.

Tuchel would seemingly rather have given Paul Parker a spot as back-up full-back in his World Cup squad. As several options pulled out before and during the tournament, it appeared the German had no choice but to include the Real Madrid defender for the first time. But no.

Then, when all seemed pleasant and amicable between the pair, back in the international fold for a bumper Nations League schedule, Alexander-Arnold did not get on the pitch for a second in defeat by Spain, with centre-back Jarell Quansah preferred at right-back.

Whether he had much choice given England’s full-back injury situation, Tuchel did resist the temptation to deploy Alexander-Arnold from the off against Czech Republic, earning the 27-year-old his first cap in 716 days and his first appearance under Tuchel.

The relationship hit the rocks again after 45 minutes to forget in Prague. Against 10 men following Pavel Sulc’s early dismissal, England’s star-studded right flank offered next to no threat, with Bukayo Saka as impotent as his illustrious team-mate behind him.

Had Tuchel seen enough? Was this vindication for Alexander-Arnold’s World Cup snub? The German did not relent, however, and hooked neither of the right-sided pair at the break.

Sixty-eight seconds after the interval, the Tuchel-Alexander-Arnold dynamic found a much-needed spark – one that could see the bond strengthen long into the future.

With one sweeping cross onto the head of Anthony Gordon, Alexander-Arnold provided a welcome reminder of exactly why he is regarded in some circles as one of the best attacking full-backs in world football.

TRENT GORDON

Anthony Gordon can't stop scoring for England, 3 goals in his last 3 games for England #ITVFootball | @England pic.twitter.com/xmqPIULJ24

— ITV Football (@itvfootball) September 29, 2026

England needed inspiration. The depleted Czechs were hardly under the cosh. A moment of brilliance was required. And, in a creative sense, Alexander-Arnold jogged everyone’s memory, Tuchel’s included, in a way few others in world football can.

“It’s up there for sure,” Alexander-Arnold said of his cross for Gordon’s opener. Quite the claim when you consider such vision is his modus operandi.

“I spoke to Ant at half-time and said if I get into those half-spaces I’m looking to put it in, so make sure you get to the back post. I didn’t expect it to work so quickly. He’s a willing runner, great to play with him. I saw the run and was able to execute the pass.

“It’s always a pleasure and an honour to represent my country. It’s been a long time. I’ve always believed that I can play for England and I want to. The manager’s given me the opportunity and I tried to do what he wanted me to do to the best of my ability and I hope he’s happy with how I played.”

For the remainder of the second period, those cutting Trent passes were back in vogue, the line-breaking pick-outs that can turn defence into attack in the blink of an eye.

On another day, Alexander-Arnold would have notched another assist or two. The question on everyone’s lips upon the final whistle at the Fortuna Arena was whether another day will come any time soon.

Read more

• Opinion: Throw the book at Man City – and force the owners out
• Comment: Pep Guardiola’s legacy is tainted for ever

The perennial Reece James injury and Tino Livramento’s setback give Alexander-Arnold, who is similarly yet to cement a first-team place at club level, a golden opportunity over the next few weeks.

It is safe to say Quansah did not exactly shine against Spain. He got forward into the same attacking areas in which Alexander-Arnold can be so devastating, but he does not possess his team-mate’s laser accuracy.

With two more Nations League games to come, Alexander-Arnold is likely to get at least one more start. Further reminders of his otherworldly attacking talents from deep and the transition from outcast to key figure will be complete.

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This season we’re doing football journalism differently. Join The i Paper Sport channel on WhatsApp here to vote for the club Daniel Storey should cover this week on The Journeyman

The contrast is trite but inescapable. Four years ago this month, Morecambe played Ipswich Town – of the 2026-27 Premier League, of course – in a league fixture.

Now they are mid-table in the sixth tier. It is the award nobody would want to win, but no football club in England had slipped so far, so quickly in the last five years.

Then, Morecambe seemed to be a model club: small-ish but with a committed fanbase in a provincial northern coastal town, a community institution making the most of itself. Almost unbelievable now, given all that has happened, is that the Shrimps banked a profit of £1.3m in 2022.

Three relegations in four years. Profit turned to loss. Loss being all that anyone can think about, in more ways than two.

I covered Morecambe a fair bit during that dismal decline, mostly surrounding the ownership of Jason Whittingham and the Bond Group under which most of the worst things happened.

At the start of last season, I met with local MP Lizzi Collinge and campaigners who were trying to force a sale of the club to see if we could help move that needle. A sale did indeed go through.

That was a cause for celebration because the only obvious alternative was extinction. I met with supporters who had put energy and time into preparation for a phoenix club. That is probably the bleakest thing any football supporter could have to do. Morecambe had been saved – that was the headline.

The next time I intersect with Morecambe and their supporters in person, it is on the outskirts of Oxford city centre. My previous Morecambe match was only in February 2025, at home to Doncaster Rovers, but that now feels like it must be five years ago or from another world.

Oxford City’s MGroup Stadium is a lovely place to watch football. It has a modern club shop, well-featured clubhouse and two small seated stands, but also the trappings of non-league that you come for: beers by the pitch, a tuck shop in one wall, outside picnic tables, kids running around while the game is being played. Seeing Morecambe play here in the warm sunshine is giving distinctly pre-season friendly vibes.

There is a bumper crowd for my visit – international breaks are good business for non-league football clubs. Surprise was expressed at the metal barriers on both sides of the pitch. This is a designated segregation match, presumably because of Morecambe’s size.

Several hundred away supporters largely stand and sit quietly before the game, using a designated away fans bar to make the most of summer’s last knockings. A “Pride of Lancashire” flag is hung to one side of the goal. It now reads with an air of weary sarcasm.

We are tricked into believing that takeovers that save clubs provoke inevitable recovery.As I wander round to the away end at Oxford City, I reflect upon my own guilt in that process. You report on the crisis, you report on the salvation and then you have to move onto the next assignment (which, more often than not, is another crisis). That sends a message: you are out of the woods so the story has moved on.

Too often, that doesn’t reflect reality. The lower down the divisions you go, the more likely that is to be true because, to be brutal, there are far fewer potential financial upsides to owning a football club down here.

We must ask four questions: why are these people buying? Do they know what they are in for? Are we celebrating a new era or merely the end of the last one? Is this the best option to move forward, or simply the only one? And so to Morecambe.

Last August, when the Panjab Warriors group bought the club, head of communications (as he was introduced as then) Gurpreet Singh Rehal promised that “We’ll be so transparent, you’re going to be sick of us” in an interview with BBC Sport. That is worth remembering for two reasons.

In December 2025, Rehal was sanctioned by the UK Government for purchasing weapons and financing two Sikh militant groups in Punjab, India. Morecambe immediately distanced themselves, labelling Rehal as merely a “consultant” on marketing and communications, although that railed against their own previous introduction.

The same month, Rod Taylor and Graham Howse, two long-standing board members, resigned from their positions because the club was haemorrhaging staff and they were excluded from strategic decision-making.

In response, chief executive Ropinder Singh did a sit-down interview with a local radio station during which he accepted that the communication and transparency, the original promise, had failed. He also described relegation from the National League as “absolutely unthinkable” despite Morecambe being in the bottom four. They were subsequently relegated.

In March 2026, Morecambe were handed a player registration embargo due to non-compliance over payment issues relating to the former owners – it was settled and lifted. Later the same month, a winding-up petition was issued which the club said was related to supplier payments under the old regime – it was settled. Come August, another embargo was imposed for the non-payment of pension contributions, blamed on a “purely administrative matter”.

All the while, Ashvir Singh Johal was the manager having replaced the popular – and eternally patient – Derek Adams. Johal was eventually sacked after five months, but five weeks were enough to prove that it was never going to work. Supporters I’ve spoken to stopped going because they could not take their club seriously.

The most dispiriting news came in July, when Morecambe became the first club to face action from the new Independent Football Regulator, officially warned after directors failed to respond to repeated requests for information and as such breached the Football Governance Act. For a fanbase that lived in fear of negative headlines, it was a sorry line in the sand.

To Panjab Warriors’ credit, they were the ones who stepped in. They inherited a mess and supporters understood that the work required to overhaul that mess would mean that last season’s relegation was a possibility. They also replaced Johal with Adam Lakeland, recruited from Halifax Town in the division above. The squad is too light on numbers, but Lakeland has recovered from a difficult start. His presence indicates some normality.

But that is where my credit stops. The owners knew the pain within the fanbase and knew how the culture of silence under the Bond Group had worsened it. They specifically promised (to the point of making a joke out of it) that communication would lie at the heart of their ownership. Even if you make mistakes and suffer a little for a lack of expertise, supporters will have patience as long as you are open with them about it. That was the only non-negotiable.

It is not their fault that they inherited mistrust, but they had a chance to alleviate it and have done the opposite. The communication to supporters has been found lacking and the Independent Football Regulator has been treated in the same way. They are the only two parties that really matter here and both have been let down.

That casts a shadow over the present but it also darkens the future. In May, Morecambe’s annual accounts confirmed a seven-figure loss and predicted that the club could have lost £2m between the end of that tax year and the end of May 2026. For a club in the sixth tier, that is eye-watering. That profit in League One was half a lifetime ago.

“The scale of the projected cost reductions required, the consecutive relegations, and the club’s dependence on a single shareholder group constitute a material uncertainty that may cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern,” director Kuljit Singh Momi wrote in the club’s strategic report. That is honesty, buried in type online.

This is why the communication (or lack of) becomes bigger than itself. People are worried and people are drifting away because they don’t really know what they’re fighting for. Morecambe’s home attendances have halved in four years, so the ability to generate the revenue required gets harder too. You reduce the ticket prices but not enough people bite because they are watching Bedford Town and Spalding United. Both of those clubs sit above Morecambe now.

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I do not know what happens next. Supporters I speak to do not know what happens next. I hope that the owners have plans for whatever comes next and I hope that they might realise how important it is to share those plans for better and worse-case scenarios. But, sorry, I will not hold my breath. That is not defeatism, it is evidence-based realism. If you want to get the benefit of less doubt, be better.

For now, Morecambe are a lesson about life in lower-league English football.

About how easy it is to drop off everybody’s radar. About how much harder climbing back up is than dropping down: the greasy slide and the greasy pole. About how takeovers that save your existence are never guaranteed to make life easy. The hard work started then. Morecambe supporters know that like a punch in the face.

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Czech Republic 0-2 England (Sulc red card 25′ | Gordon 47′, Kane 69′)

FORTUNA ARENA — Thomas Tuchel is on his final warning with many supporters. Despite claiming 99 per cent of fans he has spoken to since England’s heartbreaking World Cup exit have been positive, the reality is that many would have preferred to see the German leave rather than receive the FA’s backing.

A defeat in a tricky Nations League tie in Prague would have made it three losses in four games. Tuchel would have been tossed off the Charles Bridge.

Instead, he received an almighty helping hand from the officials in the Czech capital, while an uneventful victory and an elusive clean sheet were exactly what the under-pressure England coach needed.

On a seismic day in English football because of events back home, supporters were blissfully unaware of Manchester City being banged to rights as they enjoyed plentiful Czech lager around Old Town Square in unseasonably warm late-September weather.

TRENT GORDON

Anthony Gordon can't stop scoring for England, 3 goals in his last 3 games for England #ITVFootball | @England pic.twitter.com/xmqPIULJ24

— ITV Football (@itvfootball) September 29, 2026

It was one of those afternoons when some of the 1,024 travelling supporters may have thought long and hard about whether to bother with the match, given just how idyllic it was.

Prague is home to the second-largest sporting arena ever built, the Great Strahov Stadium, with a colossal capacity of 250,000. It actually houses nine football pitches, so it is not quite suitable for competitive international football.

The more compact Fortuna Arena, the site of West Ham’s most famous night, was instead selected. Its resemblance to a smaller St Mary’s Stadium is uncanny.

Jude Bellingham was rested as Tuchel took a gamble on Morgan Rogers in a midfield three alongside Myles Lewis-Skelly. It looked like a somewhat churlish move early on as the visitors laboured through the opening exchanges.

The Czech Republic had the better early chances, with their star man Pavel Sulc denied by a sharp James Trafford block on the edge of his penalty area.

Sulc remained centre stage as one rather harsh VAR call irrevocably changed the course of the match. His challenge on Elliot Anderson after 25 minutes was upgraded from a yellow card to a red – one of those that looked much worse in slow motion.

The fact it took until 68 seconds after the interval for England to break the deadlock is some cause for concern. Trent Alexander-Arnold, making his first England start in 716 days, provided the sublime cross for Anthony Gordon to head home. The Barcelona forward now has eight goal involvements in his last nine England games.

Read more

• Opinion: Throw the book at Man City – and force the owners out
• Comment: England have two glaring weaknesses Thomas Tuchel desperately needs to fix

Harry Kane’s 87th England goal, pouncing clinically on a loose ball, then put the game to bed.

It is not an encounter that will live long in the memory for most, but Tuchel may savour this success in the years to come. Should he see his England project through, steadying moments are just as important as the swashbuckling successes.

After the tumultuous end to the World Cup and defeat at home to Spain last time out, Tuchel could not have wished for a more satisfying evening in Prague.

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Manchester City have been found guilty of all of the charges related to breaches of its financial rules, the Premier League has confirmed.

A 40-page redacted summary of the independent commission’s verdict revealed the extent of City’s alleged financial rule-breaking, with the club found to have created “sham” sponsorships as part of a “disguised funding scheme” that boosted revenues by £900m over a nine-year period.

Without those revenues, the statement revealed, they would have significantly breached both Premier League and Uefa financial fair play rules.

A Premier League statement revealed “the club filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators”.

The club said in a very strong response they were “disappointed” with the verdict and indicated that they would be “relentless” and pursue “all appropriate regulatory and legal forums”. That was followed up by a video message from chief executive Ferran Soriano to club staff proclaiming their innocence.

Manchester City have known about the verdict since July, which is sure to raise eyebrows in the Premier League given the extent of their spending during the summer.

What were the key findings?

In short they couldn’t have been much more damning of City, finding them guilty of fraudulent activity on an industrial scale in a period where they established their dominance in English football.

• The commission found almost all charges against City were proven, apart from one element of Charge 4(B). The exact details of that charge are redacted.
• The independent commission found that City inflated their revenues by £830m through a series of “sham” commercial arrangements that misrepresented the true agreements between parties.
• The commission found the club had filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of their finances from their auditors and football regulators.

• Without those arrangements the Premier League statement says that they would have “significantly” breached both the league and Uefa’s financial fair play limits.

• The scale of the misrepresentation is huge. A statement reveals “well over 100 alleged individual breaches of Premier League Rules across four broad charge categories”.
• The independent commission also found that the club made “concerted efforts to frustrate the Premier League investigation” over a four-year period and accused key City witnesses of giving evidence they knew to be untrue.

How did Man City respond?

In the strongest possible terms. City have claimed the verdict is based on false evidence and have pledged to take their fight through all possible avenues.

In a defiant club statement released shortly after the Premier League’s statement they said: “Manchester City FC is both disappointed and surprised by the opinion of the Premier League Commission, that has been published today.

“The Club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions, relating to this case. The Club will therefore be relentless, and where necessary proactive, in any and all appropriate regulatory and legal forums.

“The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements uncompleted. Manchester City FC will now pursue the appeal avenues open to it, on the basis that the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe.

“The Club has diligently respected due process for eight years on the basis that the Premier League Board and Executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from partisan influence.

“The Club is obviously restricted in what it can say further until all future proceedings are complete.”

Ferran Soriano’s message to #ManCity staff.

Case based on ‘false accusation’
Sponsorship money not from owner
‘Irrefutable evidence’ provided
Premier League ‘conspiracy theory’
Extensive evidence ‘ignored’
Conclusion ‘clearly wrong’
Appeal will be filed… pic.twitter.com/Xj1RTvbfKX

— City Report (@cityreport_) September 29, 2026

That was followed up by a video address to shocked City staff in which Soriano said: “The whole Premier League case against us is based on a single false accusation – that the owner’s personal money was somehow and secretly put into the club via some sponsors from Abu Dhabi.

“This is just not true. Irrefutable evidence has been provided to PL commission that shows it could not happen and that it did not happen. This includes bank statements, money transfers, witnesses and everything necessary to categorically demonstrate the money did not come from the owner.

“Every other false charge that has been thrown at us comes from that simple, central and completely false accusation.

“Surprisingly for us and our lawyers after nearly two years the Premier League’s commission has issued an opinion that supports the Premier League’s conspiracy theory. To do so, the opinion had to ignore the extensive evidence provided by the club in order to reach a conclusion that is clearly wrong. Our lawyers will now file an appeal that sets out the opinion contains clear, material errors of law, principle and fact and that it is unsafe.”

What happens next?

The independent commission found that the verdict was its “final award”, which is why the redacted verdict has been released today.

There will now be a sanctions hearing – at which both City and the Premier League can put forward their case – and the club will find out their punishment. Given the unprecedented nature of the case, all punishments are on the table including huge points deductions, relegation and even stripping the club of their titles.

The club have until Friday to formally appeal the verdict – which, given the strength of their response, is sure to happen.

Clearly there are potentially huge ramifications for the club and for the future of English football. Four clubs – Spurs, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool – are prepared to take legal action against City and the bill could run to hundreds of millions of pounds.

More on Man City

Kevin Garside: Pep Guardiola’s legacy is tainted for ever

Special report: Man City staff fear job losses after Premier League verdict

It also leaves the league in its biggest crisis. Premier League chairman Richard Masters said: “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. While the process to date has been both long and difficult, the League has remained determined that the facts be established independently.

“It is a key responsibility of the Premier League to ensure that the Rules, approved by the clubs themselves, are upheld to protect the integrity of the competition. It is paramount that the League remains competitive and fair for all clubs and for the fans. We take that role extremely seriously.”

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The first time Alejandro Garnacho wore an Aston Villa shirt was not in pre-season but last summer, when he rather pointedly sported a “Rashford 9” jersey.

The shirt was from Marcus Rashford’s loan spell in the second half of the 2024-25 season, when the forward reinvigorated his career by changing environment.

Villa loaned Marco Asensio at the same time, and so began the club’s reputation for offering high-profile stars an attractive route out from their current impasse.

Head coach Unai Emery’s ability to get the most out of players has often been cited as one primary reason for Villa being an ideal location, likewise their recent stretch of European football.

But these loans have also been born out of necessity, leading to a factory producing mixed results with Garnacho the latest curious case.

Why Villa favour loan deals

Villa have implemented loan deals within their recruitment strategy since becoming European football regulars, with fines from Uefa the past two years forcing the club to get creative with transfers.

Restrictions mean they are unable to spend as freely as they would like, and explain the positive net spend of £62.8m this summer when Garnacho and Aaron Wan-Bissaka arrived on loan.

“Loan deal moves are linked to their compliance with Uefa’s squad cost ratio rules,” Loughborough University sports finance expert Dan Plumley tells The i Paper.

“We know they breached and they are on a business plan with Uefa that is being monitored.”

“Loan deals obviously mean no transfer cost right now and you can push that down the road, assuming you want to buy the player or have an obligation to do so. You are effectively just pushing the cost to a later point and probably the next financial year.”

For every Rashford, an Elliott – grading Villa’s loan deals

Marcus Rashford: Four goals and six assists in the second half of Villa’s 2024-25 campaign earned Rashford a loan move to Barcelona the season after. He notably thanked Villa and Emery after being called up to England’s World Cup 2026 squad. Grade: A-

Marco Asensio: A double sprinkle of stardust saw the Spaniard light up Villa Park along with Rashford in 2024-25, and though he faded towards the end of the campaign, eight goals and one assist helped Villa reach the Champions League quarter-finals and FA Cup semis. Grade: B+

Axel Disasi: Loaned from Chelsea at the same time as Rashford and Asensio, but was there as cover and made just six starts. He remains unwanted by Chelsea but the club are unable to sell him. After a loan spell at West Ham, now on loan at Crystal Palace. Grade: E

Jadon Sancho: The next high-profile name to join, on loan for the 2025-26 season, Sancho featured in 39 games for Villa but never held down a starting spot. He was useful cover for John McGinn in Europe but one goal and three assists perhaps explain why he is still a free agent. Grade: C

Harvey Elliott: “Embarrassing for everyone involved,” Emery noted in May. “My apologies for Harvey Elliott are, every day, in my mind.” Villa had an obligation to buy Elliott for £35m if he played 10 Premier League games, but he played just 104 minutes across four appearances in the league. It was a wasted season for Elliott, and it raised not only the question of why Villa loaned him, but who at Villa really wanted him. Clearly it was not Emery. Grade: F

Douglas Luiz: The Brazilian returned for a loan spell in the second half of last season and was largely cover for Youri Tielemans. He came on in the Europa League final and picked up a winners’ medal, but Villa did not take up their option to buy the midfielder from Juventus. Grade: B

What of Wan-Bissaka and Garnacho?

It is too soon to grade Villa’s current loan signings, but Garnacho and Wan-Bissaka have endured contrasting starts to life in the West Midlands.

Wan-Bissaka has started the last two league games, as well as their Champions League opener, and looks set for an ongoing battle for the right-back role with Matty Cash.

Garnacho meanwhile is down the pecking order for wingers and playing catch-up already.

“Work, work, train, work,” Emery said when asked about Garnacho’s lack of minutes. “He is progressing, but we have players in front of him now.”

The harsher reality of Garnacho’s slow start

Many have been quick to call Garnacho’s current predicament an Elliott 2.0 scenario, with reports of interest from Spain emerging already and Villa seemingly unwilling to activate the obligation to buy from Chelsea.

It is far too early call this fact, given Garnacho also suffered an injury in pre-season, but the reality is that the outlook has already changed at the club since he became their third signing early in the transfer window.

The emergence of George Hemmings has resulted in the 19-year-old becoming Villa’s breakout star of the season so far, with both Emery and captain McGinn glowing in their praise of a young winger eager to learn.

Praise for Hemmings’ work ethic is a reminder for Garnacho. They are direct rivals for the left-wing role, and with support for striker Nicolas Jackson also featuring McGinn, Alysson, Ibrahim Mbaye and Emiliano Buendia, competition is fierce.

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• Michael Hincks: Aston Villa have a new fan favourite

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The harsher reality though is that Garnacho is simply not as good as his rivals, and having been thrust into the spotlight at United early on in his career, it can be difficult to accept you are not at that level.

And Villa, really, is no step down from Chelsea or United currently given they are a Champions League club, and unless the 22-year-old convinces Emery otherwise, this season is only going one way.

Not every crossroad that leads players to Villa is successful, evidently, and now it is on Garnacho to prove the more probable path is not the one he will take.

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The Greek side that won Euro 2004 deserve many superlatives for an achievement that shocked a continent. But entertaining they were not. 

Look around Europe a generation on and you will see that another Greek football revolution is in full swing. And this one looks a lot more fun. 

It is led by Brighton’s teenage sensation, Charalampos Kostoulas, and Arsenal’s former Norwich City outcast, Christos Tzolis.  

Going into the first international window of 2026-27,  Kostoulas had scored four goals in eight matches so far this season and two from two in the Premier League for a Seagulls’ side soaring high in third place. 

Arsenal, meanwhile, sit in second, thanks in part to the performances of Tzolis, who has already established himself as a regular starter for the champions. 

Now, two matches into the Nations League, they have helped the country to back-to-back away wins against Serbia and Jurgen Klopp’s Germany. Greece now sit on top of their group and can now look forward to successive home matches against the Netherlands and Klopp’s men. 

Little wonder that the mood in the country is as bouyant as its been in 22 years.

“They’re two players who reflect the way that the Greek side are now playing,” says Nikos Dabizas, the former defender who spent seven years in English football with Newcastle and then Leicester City.

“In the past, you would say that Greece’s strength was their defending, they were hard to beat, didn’t concede many goals but didn’t score many either.

“Now these guys, along with [Konstantinos] Karetsas at Dortmund, [Vangelis] Pavlidis at Benfica and [Stefanos] Tzimas, another kid at Brighton who came through the system at PAOK  – there’s quality everywhere.”  

Kostoulas is viewed as an emblematic figure in this new age for Greek football, although his roots can be found in the foundations that were laid for the 2004 triumph.

His father, Athanasios Kostoulas, played alongside Stelios Giannakopoulos during his time at Olympiakos. He also played alongside both Giannakopoulos – a member of that European Championship winning side 22 years ago – and Dabizas for the Greek national team.  

“His dad was the opposite of Babis [the Greek shortening for Charalampos] – he was a very disciplined centre-back,” says Giannakopoulos. “His brother [Konstantinos Kostoulas] plays in the same position for Crete.  

“When it comes down to it, everybody can see the way you played your football, and say you were a good player.

“But for me, football is all about character. This is what counts more for me. His father was a great character.  

“They’re a great family, and that has rubbed off on the boys. You can see that in the way they play and the way they act.

“He’s not flying in the clouds after one great performance, or a goal against Arsenal. He has got his feet firmly on the floor – exactly where they should be.”

Dabizas believes that both Kostoulas and Tzolis are in exactly the right place for their development.

“Kostoulas came through the Olympiakos team that won the Champions League in under-19s football [in 2023-24],” he says.

“To do that as a team from Greece against the biggest names in European football – that’s an incredible achievement. But to develop, you need to go abroad, you need minutes at the very top level. 

“You look across Europe and see that Brighton is a club that does things the right way. They bring in young players, they develop them, they give them time and opportunity. The manager obviously has faith in him. 

“As a player he has a bit of attitude and I like that, I think you need that, especially as a young guy in the Premier League.  

“Tzolis has done the right thing throughout his career as well. He went to Norwich as a very young guy and found it difficult but I think that was inevitable. 

“He was in a side that was always going to spend more time defending than attacking.

“When you’re a young guy [Tzolis was just 19 when he arrived at Carrow Road] that’s tough. 

“But he went away, got experience in Germany and then Belgium and then came back to the Premier League as a much more rounded player. 

“To come straight into this Arsenal and get into the first team immediately tells you everything you need to know.

“I won’t say that this is a Golden Generation of Greek players – I know you love that description in England – but it’s a very good generation.

“And they’re playing the kind of football that Greek sides haven’t traditionally played in the past.

“That’s exciting, not just for the fans but for these players as well.”

Bigger tests await, not just at club level on the international stage, with Greece having failed to qualify for a major tournament since 2014.

By the time the group stage is over, Greece – currently ranked 46 in the world – should have a better idea of their global standing.

For Tzolis and Kostoulas, though, the only way is up.

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Whither Pep Guardiola in the post Manchester City universe? The problem with cheating is it burns everything to the ground, reputations uppermost in the ledger of loss.

Guardiola has said nothing since the devastating verdict leaked last week. His loyalty to the regime was absolute. And since he remains a City ambassador following his departure in May, the silence will likely continue until City’s fate is formally revealed. 

Only the first three years of the Guardiola decade overlapped with the 2009-2018 period under investigation. He was, however, in post for the entirety of the four-year investigation, which launched in 2018, and the subsequent hearing to consider the 115 charges relating to breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations.

Thirty-five of those charges were effectively cases of the same offence, failing to cooperate with the investigation. The silence to which Guardiola has contributed since the verdict broke feels wearily consistent with the spirit of City’s routed defence.

It is self-evident that Guardiola’s achievements are in the bin. His apologists, led by ultra dim loyalists like Liam Gallagher and former player Rodri, seek to break the connection between illegal wealth and results.

“If you’re telling me that, because of some sponsorship deal that was signed nearly 15 years ago, the four in a row and Istanbul and all of those things now mean nothing… then you’re being hysterical,” bleated the Beswick supernova.

Rodri was similarly aligned. “What we did, they cannot take it out of us. It is something that is not paid by money, it is paid with effort, with partnership and with being shoulder to shoulder every day,” he said, ignoring the connection between the quality of the participants involved and the cost of buying them.

Of course Rodri sits outside the investigated period, but his achievements and those of Guardiola are indelibly linked since they rest on the shoulders of the damned. Guardiola is doubly cooked because of his uncritical acceptance of all he was told.

He behaved like a medieval courtier, blindly trumpeting the truth as laid out by the Abu Dhabi state. He was steadfast in the veracity of that message, a willing dupe in the employ and at the service of a regime that cynically manipulated the rules.

“Because you believe in your club and the people there. I believe what they say to me and the reasons why,” Guardiola said after the charges were brought.

The same message echoed after his exit was announced in February this year. “Because you believe in your club and the people there. I believe what they say to me and the reasons why.”

His dubious attachment deepens the stain, eating at the purity of the product. The undeniable beauty of Guardiola’s team must now be reconsidered and ultimately devalued by the rigged nature of its design.

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A total of £1.23bn was spent on 76 transfers in the period 2009-2018, including the transformative signings of Sergio Aguero, scorer of the goal that sealed victory against Queens Park Rangers in 2012 to earn the first title of the Abu Dhabi reign, Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, John Stones, Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva, Ederson and Aymeric Laporte. It was upon these foundations that Guardiola’s tainted empire was built.

Plausible denial is not innocence but collusion, the more surprising given Guardiola’s predilection for a soap box when protesting against the appalling treatment of the vulnerable in various conflicts around the world.

City and Guardiola continue to barricade themselves behind process, insisting nothing is decided until a formal verdict is handed down, and even that is subject to appeal. That might work for them but offers little protection outside the City bubble, where sentiment is shaped like a sword, suspended above their heads by the thinnest of threads.

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Manchester City could face compensation claims from players and managers who missed out on Champions League and title bonuses as part of a legal bill that could run to hundreds of millions.

It is understood that an independent commission has found City guilty of the vast majority of the charges brought by the Premier League.

City say the “process remains ongoing” but the ramifications if the verdict stands are huge.

Sanctions will be decided in the coming weeks – with the Premier League and City able to make representations to the panel – but as well as possible points deductions and huge fines, the club could be liable to compensation claims.

So far, Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal are the four clubs that have “reserved the right” to seek compensation if the verdict is upheld.

But legal experts have told The i Paper that others could yet decide to join in – and that players and managers of rival clubs who missed out on bonuses may also have a claim. Rio Ferdinand and David De Gea have already – perhaps tongue-in-cheek – speculated that they may be awarded titles for the era in question.

Clubs may have been emboldened by Burnley, who won £35m after taking action against Everton for a financial breach in the 2021-22 season.

Burnley argued Everton’s transgression had a direct impact on their chances of staying in the Premier League and, after assembling data to back up the case that the breach had a material impact on the final placings, won.

Everton are appealing the decision, but Burnley’s success illustrated that a theoretical case based on “loss of chance” can prevail.

The clubs that could be entitled to millions

United (twice, in 2012 and 2018) and Liverpool (in 2014) were denied the title, but Tottenham missed out on Champions League qualification between 2011 and 2013 and that could actually prove to be a more lucrative claim. Football finance expert Kieran Maguire believes Spurs could be looking at a claim of around £50m for lost revenue.

“Overall, the bill could be hundreds of millions if you look at the number of clubs involved,” Maguire told The i Paper.

“You would calculate the size of the claim by looking at the rewards of qualifying for the Champions League and the potential prize money. For winning the Champions League it is €150m. It’s €40m for the Europa League, so you would look at the amount potentially lost by competing in one competition rather than the other.

“Some clubs who finished fifth will be looking at a minimum of €50m claim for loss of prize money.

“Then you could legitimately say that instead of hosting Bayern Munich or Real Madrid on a Wednesday night, we ended up hosting the second-best team in Denmark on a Thursday night, so our gate receipts were down. Bonuses from sponsors are down too. All of that goes into the claims.

“I think individual clubs’ claims could exceed the amount Burnley settled for.”

Players could also mount claims

While clubs might end up looking to negotiate a settlement – which happened between Leeds and Everton in 2024 over the latter’s financial breach – there is also the possibility that players look at claiming for missed revenue during the period.

“At present it’s seen as a remote chance but could players on an individual or class action basis take action based on bonuses missed out on?” Maguire said.

“I’ve seen contracts with a 25 per cent pay rise for playing in the Champions League. A player on £4m-a-year has been denied £1m. If there’s 25 people in the squad, that potentially adds up.

“By the time you take into account individual clubs and players over a long period of time, you could be talking nine figures.”

The i Paper has been told that plenty of clubs are talking to lawyers even though – so far – only four have sent City Football Group notice of their intention to bring a claim.

But another source said that litigation could be costly and time-consuming, and most would only proceed if they felt they had a “slam dunk” against City.

‘It could be years of case after case’

While there is little sympathy for City among leading executives at other clubs, with some expressing relief that the end game may well be in sight, there are many who are concerned about how the footballing discourse in this country could become a “legal mess”.

The general “murky nature” of the charges will make any legal action hard to define. The fact that City are set to be found guilty of varying infringements will only complicate things further.

“It could be years of case after case,” one source close to senior figures at a top Premier League club tells The i Paper. “Of course, if you can get your hands on extra millions in compensation, you will take it. Especially if it is at City’s expense.

“The worry is that so many will try their hand, even when there isn’t really a proper case to make, and clog up the legal system. It could take years for all the cases to be seen.”

Suing for loss of Champions League earnings could be a more straightforward one, given it was City keeping teams out. The same can be said for loss of prize money for Premier League placings.

But relegated clubs will be eyeing their slice of the pie too, some suggest, if they are willing to go all the way to the courts.

“I imagine it is incredibly hard to prove, but given the financial struggles at Championship clubs, teams relegated after defeats to City or those who lost several key players to City in that period may be considering action,” a source who has worked at a relegated Premier League team tells The i Paper.

“It may be an issue of quickly examining the possibility, but some will be more persistent than others. It could become a bit of a free-for-all.”

The surprising mood inside rival Premier League clubs

Perhaps because of how long the case has dragged on for – or maybe because many of the executives, players and officials directly impacted by City in the period under investigation are no longer in the same roles – it has felt like there is little “glee” in the wider football world.

Despite the “seismic” nature of the initial verdict – which, City say, is not the end of the process – the mood inside rival clubs feels less triumphant than it was among supporters on Friday.

“It’s good that justice is seen to be done but there’s no winners here, only losers,” was how one Premier League executive described the feelings in his club.

They pointed out that while City should be punished if found guilty, they were not the only club they felt were pushing the regulations to breaking point. Intra-club swap deals and mutually beneficial transfers were mentioned as areas that the Premier League had not managed to get a grip on.

Another high-ranking official The i Paper spoke to said that he wanted any appeal process to be “time-barred” and said the City verdict rumbling for another two to three years was “bad for business”.

“This process has already taken too long. It needs to be expedited in whatever way it can be,” they said.

There is both relief and apprehension about Friday’s revelations. Clubs at all levels are still taking in the gravity of it all, and what it means for them.

“It is hardly surprising news,” one Premier League insider tells The i Paper. “The question is, how valid is it all? We still haven’t heard from the Premier League, which is bringing the case. Has everyone jumped the gun?

“City’s stance perhaps suggests that is the case. But I guess they would say that.”

Read more

• Report: The mood inside Man City after 114 charges bombshell
• Explained: Three ways Man City could be punished – including the titles they could lose

There is still a general weariness with this case. The fact it has dragged on so long has infuriated rivals, to the extent where they never believed a verdict would ever come.

Last week’s development restored the faith in the case for some, but for others it was not enough.

“What has changed, really?” another source who works with Premier League clubs tells The i Paper. “We are being told that the appeals process could take years. If anything, we just got a reminder of how frustrating this case is.”

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