Manchester City paid transfer fees to 46 clubs across 19 national league systems between 2009 and 2018, while spending about £1.2 billion on players, an analysis found.
The outlay, roughly £900 million after player sales, exceeded that of any other club during the period. More than a quarter went to Premier League clubs, while City signed players from eight teams in England’s top flight and eight in Spain’s La Liga.
An independent commission found that Manchester City had inflated its accounts by more than £900 million. The commission concluded that the club knowingly broke financial rules. City confirmed it would appeal the guilty verdict.
Some selling clubs used the fees to recruit replacements, but the results varied. Wolfsburg signed Julian Draxler for about half the amount it received for Kevin De Bruyne.
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After losing De Bruyne, the German club fell from second to eighth in the Bundesliga and narrowly avoided relegation in the following two seasons.
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Monaco also struggled after selling Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva to City in the same summer. The replacements named in the analysis.
Terence Kongolo and Keita Balde, did not work out over the longer term. Monaco went from winning Ligue 1 and reaching the Champions League semi-finals to nearing relegation within two years.
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Other clubs benefited through sell-on clauses. Queens Park Rangers received roughly £9 million from Raheem Sterling’s 2015 move to City, while Barnsley received about £7 million from John Stones’ transfer to Everton in 2016.
The wider effect is harder to establish. The analysis said City’s willingness to pay higher fees and wages helped push prices up, but it did not quantify that impact or show what would have happened under different spending conditions.
