India, Sept. 30 -- Manchester City's transformation is usually remembered through footballing landmarks: Sergio Aguero's title-winning goal in 2012, Pep Guardiola's arrival four years later, the 100-point Premier League season and eventually the Champions League triumph. But the financial numbers reveal another rise occurring alongside that sporting ascent - and, at crucial moments, moving considerably faster than it.

That trajectory has acquired fresh significance after the Premier League Commission's findings against City over financial rule breaches covering the 2009/10 to 2017/18 period. City insist they are innocent, have described the Commission's opinion as containing material errors and intend to appeal, but the ruling has inevit...