Ferran Soriano faces scrutiny over City's hidden contracts

Ferran Soriano’s reputation and the governance model he helped establish at Manchester City are under intense scrutiny after an independent commission’s findings on the club’s finances. The conclusions challenge the image of a leader who presented City as a carefully built, ethically run institution.

The commission found that City had overstated commercial income by about £900 million. It detailed arrangements involving fictitious sponsorship contracts and concealed funding, with money from the club’s owners presented as commercial revenue. Those findings were judged to breach sporting rules, placing Soriano at the centre of questions about the club’s methods.

Soriano, 59, joined City after leading Barcelona and writing a 2011 book that argued elite clubs needed to belong to football’s top commercial group. His earlier three-year spell as president of Spanair ended with the airline’s 2012 bankruptcy. He was initially fined £8.6 million and barred from managing other people’s assets for delaying insolvency proceedings while continuing to sell tickets, but an appeal cleared him after judges accepted that he had been trying to save the company.

At City, staff reportedly viewed close personal ties and direct strategic value as important to job security. Soriano has also faced calls from observers and former Football Association chairman David Bernstein to leave, adding pressure to the club’s executive structure.