Last week this letter led on a verdict that nobody had published. On Tuesday the Premier League published it, and by Friday it was already on its way to another panel.
Manchester City were found guilty of every financial charge, nine seasons of them, and have appealed
On Tuesday the Premier League published the independent commission's verdict. Manchester City were found guilty of every charge relating to serious breaches of its financial rules, across nine seasons from 2009 to 2018, and of most of the charges that they failed to cooperate with the investigation (ESPN, Mark Ogden; AP via NBC News, 29 September).
The commission found that City had arranged "sham" contracts with commercial partners and filed "misstated" accounts (ESPN; Yahoo Sports, 29 September). City said they were "disappointed and surprised" and "innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League" (AP via NBC News; The National, 29 September).
The club had until Friday to appeal (ESPN; AP), and City lodged the appeal with the Chair of the Judicial Panel, saying the commission's opinion "contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe" (Sky Sports, 3 October; The National). A new three-member Appeal Board will hear it in private (Sky Sports; Premier League statement, 2 October).
Nobody has yet said what any of it costs. The sanction is a separate hearing, still to come (ESPN; AP via NBC News).
So a club found guilty of breaking the rules for nine seasons has not had a single point taken off it, and a case that needed the best part of a decade to reach a verdict now goes round again, in a smaller room, with the door shut.
Last Sunday we wrote that the only point anyone had managed to settle was whether the number was 115 or 114. It turns out the commission had a firmer view of the financial ones than any of us.
Max Verstappen has 72 wins, all for Red Bull, as many as Michael Schumacher won for Ferrari
Verstappen won the Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang on Sunday, his first win of 2026 and the 72nd of his career, every one of them in a Red Bull. That matches Schumacher's total for Ferrari (grandprix.com; GPblog, 4 October). It came at the circuit where he won the last Malaysian Grand Prix, in 2017 (f1-fansite; Jamaica Gleaner, 2 October 2017).
Nine years between wins at the same circuit, and the second one was in a race named after a different country.
The call: no fine for D'Marco Jackson's hit on Jalen Hurts
In the second quarter at Soldier Field on Monday night, Jalen Hurts scrambled right, reached the first-down marker and stepped out of bounds, and the Chicago Bears linebacker D'Marco Jackson hit him in the shoulder just after he crossed the line (Yahoo Sports, Ryan Young; NBC10 Philadelphia, Dave Zangaro). Jackson was flagged for unnecessary roughness, but an Eagles holding penalty wiped it out (Yahoo Sports; NBC10). Hurts went for a concussion check, Andy Dalton threw an interception at the goal line, and the Bears won 27-7 (Yahoo Sports; NBC10). The NFL then decided not to fine Jackson (NBC10; Heavy).
The NFL's 2026 Official Playing Rules, Rule 12, Section 2, Article 8 (b), list "forcibly contacting a runner when he is out of bounds" as unnecessary roughness, and add: "Defensive players must make an effort to avoid contact. Players on defense are responsible for knowing when a runner has crossed the boundary line, except in doubtful cases where he might step on a boundary line and continue parallel with it."
One reading: the rule puts the burden on the defender, Hurts was out, and a flag the league agrees with should come with a fine. The other: he was out by a step at full speed, as doubtful as cases get, and fines are for hits a player had time to stop.
Right call or wrong call? Reply with one word.
Around the grounds
Football. From our page on the match, word for word: "Two Manchester United players set up three of the four." Portugal won 4-2 in Denmark in the Nations League on Thursday, the night after Cristiano Ronaldo left the camp when Jorge Jesus said he would not start (ESPN; SBS; Malay Mail). Bruno Fernandes made the goals for Goncalo Ramos and Vitinha, and Diogo Dalot set up Joao Felix (Sofascore; SBS). Ramos started in Ronaldo's place.
NFL. A 2028 second-round pick and a 2027 sixth. That is what the Dallas Cowboys sent the Pittsburgh Steelers for Joey Porter Jr., ending a summer in which he and Pittsburgh never got close on guaranteed money (CBS Sports; ESPN). The sixth carries a condition: Porter has to make the Cowboys' gameday roster twice this season (CBS Sports; NFL.com). He was inactive for the Steelers' first three games, citing a back injury (CBS Sports; ESPN).
Formula 1. The race was called the Bahrain Grand Prix and held in Malaysia, because the April race at Sakhir could not go ahead (f1technical; Top Gear Philippines, July). Sepang's first Grand Prix since 2017 started late in a thunderstorm and ended with George Russell's power unit failing while he was third (grandprix.com; f1-fansite). Kimi Antonelli finished second and leads Russell by 84 points (Sky Sports; grandprix.com). Next weekend is Singapore.
Tennis. Has Novak Djokovic ever lost in Beijing? Not once. He came from a set down to beat the wild card Bu Yunchaokete 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-2 on Friday and is 31-0 at the China Open (Tennis Majors; Tennis Now, 2 October). Rafael Nadal is the only other man in the Open Era to open 31-0 at one event, at Roland-Garros (Tennis Majors; Tennis Now). Djokovic is 39.
Golf. 18 months of military service, cut to four weeks of basic training. Tom Kim shot a closing 64 in Japan on Saturday to win the Asian Games gold at 18 under by three shots, which under South Korean law exempts him from the rest (CBS Sports; AP, 3 October). He had left the Presidents Cup at Medinah early to get there (AP, Doug Ferguson; Golf Digest).
NBA. LeBron James is 41 and on a two-year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers worth about $8m, the smallest salary of his career (CBS Sports; Complex). After his first practice in Camden on Tuesday he took a helicopter about 95 miles home to New York (Complex; Yahoo Sports). Tyrese Maxey, whose car had let him down: "One of us left in a helicopter, the other one was sitting on the curb" (Yahoo Sports; ClutchPoints).
WNBA. What does an expansion team look like in its second season? The Golden State Valkyries came from 16 down to beat the Dallas Wings 77-73 in Game 3 on Friday, the franchise's first playoff series win (ESPN, Kendra Andrews; CBS Sports). Gabby Williams scored 11 of her 19 in the fourth quarter (ESPN; Yahoo Sports). Next are the defending champion Las Vegas Aces, from Sunday in San Francisco (ESPN; CBS Sports).
The argument: should Aston Martin have kept Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll?
Last week's Presidents Cup question has nothing new to settle it, so it stays open. On Tuesday Aston Martin confirmed both of its drivers for 2027, a fifth season together, with the team tenth in the constructors' championship (Formula1.com; Reuters via The Star, 29 September).
One side: the car is the problem, and two drivers who know it are worth more than a rookie learning it. The other: a team in tenth should be finding its next driver while it has the chance.
Kept, or changed? One word and a line on why.
One from the archive
Manchester United play Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford on Saturday (ESPN; premierleagueschedule.org). On 29 September 2001 at White Hart Lane, Tottenham were 3-0 up at half-time through Dean Richards, Les Ferdinand and Christian Ziege. Andy Cole scored straight after the break, then Laurent Blanc, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Juan Sebastian Veron and David Beckham, and Manchester United won 5-3 (Tottenham Hotspur's THFCdb; Sports Mole).
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