The Big Names at the Heart of the Man City Scandal

It has been nearly eight years since allegations of financial misconduct against Manchester City were brought to light.

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A complex investigation took a huge twist on Friday when it emerged the Premier League had found City guilty of 114 of the 115 charges against them. Punishments have not yet been handed out, however, with City expected to appeal the verdict.

It is a scandal of seismic proportions. While many of the details remain locked behind closed doors, several prominent figures play significant roles in this story.

Sheikh Mansour

Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, known more commonly as Sheikh Mansour, is the current vice-president of the United Arab Emirates and the owner of the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), an investment arm for Abu Dhabi’s royal family. ADUG led the takeover of Man City in September 2008, with Mansour operating as the club’s owner ever since.

The 2009–10 season-the first of those under scrutiny-was Mansour’s first full year at the helm of a group that transitioned into what is known today as City Football Group in 2013.

Leaked documents appeared to show Mansour’s ownership group had been indirectly funding a number of City’s sponsorship deals, seemingly in an attempt to navigate around rules restricting ownership investment. Failure to declare such investment is a major breach of the Premier League’s regulations.

Roberto Mancini

City’s first significant managerial appointment of the Mansour era came in December 2009, when Mark Hughes was sacked and replaced by Italian tactician Roberto Mancini, who spent four years and 191 games in the dugout and led the team to the 2011–12 Premier League title.

The allegations against Mancini involve a second contract as an advisor to a team in Abu Dhabi, Al Jazira Sports and Cultural Club, that was owned by Sheikh Mansour. According to the leaks, Mancini’s base salary of £1.45 million ($1.9 million at the current rate) with City was topped up by a further £1.75 million through this second contract.

ADUG are said to have sent money to Al Jazira which would then be paid back to Mancini through an offshore company.

“The alleged double contract is not my concern,” Mancini, now the manager of the Italian national team, said following news of City’s guilty verdict. “It’s their issue, not mine.”

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Yaya Touré and Dimitri Seluk

Among those mentioned in the documents is Dimitri Seluk, an agent who, at the time, represented City midfielder Yaya Touré.

The leaked documents showed contracts between ADUG and a company called DS Management Ltd, owned by Seluk, in relation to the player’s image rights. Those contracts appear to show details of payments directly from ADUG, when regulations state clubs should be responsible for such payments.

“He did a lot of bad things,” Touré told The Times of Seluk in 2019, having separated from the agent by that point.

Seluk, for his part, has denied any wrongdoing. “Everything was transparent, there was nothing on the back side,” he told The Guardian. “I am interested to see what happens as this was a surprise. Yaya paid everything-tax and everything. It was all transparent.”

Rui Pinto

We’ll end with Rui Pinto, the man responsible for bringing these allegations to the public eye.

Pinto, a Portuguese national, founded a website known as Football Leaks in 2015 and used the platform to publish confidential documents relating to a number of clubs and figures. It started with claims against the likes of Benfica and Porto, broadcasting documents that he obtained without the permission of those involved.

His list of targets grew over the years. Big names like Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were all mentioned, but Pinto’s most significant investigation came in November 2018, when information passed over to Der Spiegel led to the bombshell allegations against City.

Arrested in 2019, Pinto has spent time in prison for cybercrimes and has also been in witness protection.

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This story was originally published September 28, 2026 at 4:00 AM.