Manchester City have been found guilty of every single one of their 115 charges brought upon them by the Premier League.
The club continue to deny any wrongdoing and have since appealed the decision as we wait to learn of the potential punishment.
Owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, the situation has raised questions over state backing.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham raised eyebrows when he said he would be “really concerned” if City’s Abu Dhabi owners left following the commission verdict.
“We are absolutely bound by one thing, and that one thing is regulating football and regulating football clubs,” IFR chair David Kogan said at the launch of their ‘State of the Game’ report in Manchester on Tuesday.
“Our independence is absolute, and my independence personally is absolute. I made it very clear in an interview last year that if we (experience) any form of political interference on the way we operate it is going to result in my resigning from this role, and I stand by that completely.
“Just to be crystal clear, we’ve come under absolutely no political pressure whatsoever on this or any other topic, and I don’t expect to in the future.”