Khaldoon Al Mubarak Promises to Speak on City’s 115 Charges
Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak says he is ready to finally “say everything” once the club’s long-running battle over 115 alleged breaches of Premier League financial rules reaches a verdict.
City were charged in 2023 over alleged offences spanning a nine-year spell from 2009 to 2018, including accusations that they failed to cooperate with the league’s investigation into their finances. An independent commission heard the case a year and a half ago, yet the outcome still hangs in the air.
The club has consistently denied any wrongdoing. The silence from City’s hierarchy on the specifics has been deliberate, and Khaldoon made clear that, for now, it will remain that way.
“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. The restraint sounded familiar, but the next line carried a different edge.
“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 promise from the man who has overseen one of the most dominant eras in English football history. Since the Abu Dhabi-led takeover in 2008, City have stacked the domestic honours: eight Premier League titles, four FA Cups and seven League Cups, crowned by the Champions League triumph that completed the set.
That success has transformed not only the club’s trophy cabinet but its balance sheet and global profile. City now sit at the heart of the City Football Group, a multi-club empire that Khaldoon says owner Sheikh Mansour has no interest in breaking up.
“Sheikh Mansour, when he looks at this club, he sees it as a long-term investment,” Khaldoon said, underlining the ownership’s stance.
He put a marker down on valuation as well. “If you're going to sell all this today in the market, you wouldn't sell it for less than 10 billion dollars minimum.”
There is, he stressed, no appetite to cash in.
“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 goes beyond numbers on a spreadsheet. He framed City’s project inside the wider pull of the game itself.
“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.”
Then came the line that summed up how the hierarchy sees their position in the modern game.
“And Manchester City and this group, within the football world, is a pinnacle. These sorts of jewels, you don't sell.”
The verdict on those 115 charges will decide how the rest of the football world judges City’s rise. Inside the club, there is no sense of retreat — only a chairman waiting for the moment he can finally lift the lid.
