曼城裁决中有一些耐人寻味的背景，其中暗指了2009/10赛季。

The panel say City had "real concern" their total losses for that year would eclipse a record set by Chelsea in 2006 of £140m. "The Club was adamant it should not break [it]."

This led to concerns "large losses" were also on the horizon for the next five years, and fears the club would not be FFP compliant.

The panel say it was against this backdrop that the "disguised funding scheme" was born. "The Club devised a plan to disguise shareholder funding as ‘commercial partner revenue.’"