Khaldoon Al Mubarak on Manchester City's 115-Charge Verdict
Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak says he is ready to finally “say everything” once the club’s long-running battle with the Premier League over 115 alleged financial breaches reaches a verdict.
City were hit with the unprecedented charge sheet in 2023, covering an alleged nine-year period of rule-breaking from 2009 to 2018 and accusations that the club failed to cooperate with the league’s investigation into their finances. An independent commission has already held a hearing, but a decision remains outstanding a year and a half on.
The delay hangs over the most dominant era in the club’s history. Since the Abu Dhabi-led takeover in 2008, City have turned domestic power into a near monopoly: eight Premier League titles, a Champions League, four FA Cups and seven League Cups. The transformation has been spectacular, but it has also placed every aspect of the project under the fiercest scrutiny.
City have consistently denied any wrongdoing. Publicly, though, the club’s hierarchy has kept its powder dry. That, Khaldoon insists, will change the moment a ruling lands.
“Let me be as consistent as I've always been — until we have a ruling, I can't say much,” he told the club’s media channels. “Once we have a ruling, believe me, we're going to have a wonderful sit down together and I'll say everything I've wanted to say for the last three years.”
It was a pointed line, the clearest indication yet that City feel their side of the story has been left hanging while the process drags on. The chairman’s message was simple: the club will speak, but only when the legal dust has settled.
Off the pitch, the numbers tell their own story. City’s rise has driven the value of the wider City Football Group to extraordinary levels. Khaldoon revealed that owner Sheikh Mansour now values the multi-club empire at around $10 billion — and has no interest in cashing out.
“Sheikh Mansour, when he looks at this club, he sees it as a long-term investment,” Khaldoon said. “If you're going to sell all this today in the market, you wouldn't sell it for less than 10 billion dollars minimum.
“Of course, His Highness has no intention of selling this business. There's only intention to keep growing this because the view here is this will only grow and this is a beautiful business to own.”
For Khaldoon, the attraction is not just balance sheets and trophies. It is the place football occupies in a crowded entertainment world.
“It's football and it's entertainment. In the world we're in today, while the world changes and people's attention goes to different things, sport stays — and football within sports is the pinnacle.
“And Manchester City and this group, within the football world, is a pinnacle. These sorts of jewels, you don't sell.”
So City wait. Titles keep coming, the valuation keeps climbing, and the chairman insists the project is built to last. The only missing piece is the verdict that will decide how this era is ultimately framed — as an unblemished benchmark, or a triumph forever shadowed by those 115 charges.
