Where Man City's 'inflated' transfer money really went: the 46 clubs who cashed in

Manchester City spent close to £1.2bn on players between 2009 and 2018, the period in which the independent commission found the club had inflated its accounts and broken financial rules. That outlay, far greater than any rival's, was central to City becoming England's most successful club. The money did not stay in Manchester: it flowed to dozens of clubs around the world and left a mark on the transfer market that is hard to undo.

• City paid transfer fees to 46 clubs across 19 national league systems between summer 2009 and winter 2018.
• Just over a quarter of their total transfer spending went to Premier League clubs.
• Wolfsburg and Monaco, two of the biggest beneficiaries, declined sharply after selling to City.
• Clubs such as QPR and Barnsley earned millions through sell-on clauses without dealing directly with City.

Tracing £1.2bn through the transfer market

The clubs that previously employed Sergio Aguero, Kevin de Bruyne and Bernardo Silva all received significant fees from Manchester City during that era. The money circulated around football and made many other clubs richer, particularly in the Premier League. That has been one of the arguments used by City's backers since the guilty verdict and the announcement of an appeal: that the spending brought a net benefit to the game, especially to the clubs who were paid large transfer fees.

The more than £900m by which the commission found the club had inflated its accounts was not all spent on transfers. Clubs carry many other costs, from player and staff wages to utilities, insurance, infrastructure, commercial fees and more. Even so, the roughly £1.2bn spent on players from 2009 to 2018, with a net spend of about £900m, was unmatched in that period.

Which clubs received the most from Manchester City

The spread of City's transfer spending was relatively even across Europe's top leagues, though the Premier League stood above the rest. Just over a quarter of their total outlay went to clubs in the English top flight. City signed players from eight Premier League clubs and from the same number in La Liga. In the Championship, they spent a combined £13m on two players.

The list of clubs who received fees from City during that decade includes 46 teams spread across 19 national league systems. For some of them, the payment was the highest transfer fee they had ever received at the time.

Big paydays did not guarantee success for sellers

Receiving a huge sum from City did not always lead to sporting improvement. Wolfsburg, for instance, spent about half of what they collected for Kevin de Bruyne in 2016 on signing winger Julian Draxler straight away, along with other players such as veteran defender Dante. After losing the Belgian, the German side dropped from second to eighth in the Bundesliga and narrowly avoided relegation over the following two seasons.

Monaco fared little better. After selling Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva to City in the same summer, their most direct replacements, Terence Kongolo and Keita Balde, did not work out in the long run. The club went from winning Ligue 1 and reaching the Champions League semi-finals to almost being relegated within two years.

The impact on rivals who received nothing

Arsenal, the club City bought the most players from during that period with four signings, did not mount a serious Premier League title challenge in those years. Other clubs who received no payments from City could also argue that spending from inflated accounts compromised their chances.

City paid very similar amounts to Benfica and Porto during the era but nothing to Sporting, the third member of Portugal's big three. Sporting did not win a league title between 2009 and 2018. There are many reasons for that, but one could be that their direct rivals received City money that might not have been available had the English club followed football's financial rules.

Sell-on clauses: millions for clubs who never dealt with City

There were also indirect payments that reached clubs with whom Manchester City had no direct negotiations. Some players were subject to sell-on clauses, meaning the selling club owed a percentage of the fee to the player's previous team.

Queens Park Rangers earned roughly £9m from Raheem Sterling's move from Liverpool to City in 2015. Barnsley took about £7m from the fee Everton received for John Stones in 2016, and Everton also had to pass on around £2.5m to Wolves when Joleon Lescott joined City in 2009.

The Sterling and Stones clauses were worth more than most players operating in the English Football League at the time, significantly strengthening the financial positions of QPR and Barnsley. To this day, Barnsley have not sold a player for more than the fee they are believed to have received for Stones. Yet QPR have not returned to the Premier League, and Barnsley dropped from the Championship to League One after two seasons.

An impact impossible to unravel

Manchester City's spending during the period in which they broke the rules had an enormous impact on their own upward trajectory, on the futures of other clubs worldwide and on the wider football economy. Their spending power unquestionably changed the global transfer market: their willingness to pay higher fees and wages meant prices rose for everyone else too.

What is more, once the market knows a club has a wedge of cash from City burning a hole in its pocket, spending it can be difficult. Asking prices tend to rise, and an influx of money is no guarantee of wise investment. The reality is that it is impossible to unravel the tapestry of football history from that time and since: too much has happened, with too many indirect consequences. The effects of that spending will reverberate for years to come.