Manchester City are facing calls for a criminal investigation into their financial misconduct after being found guilty of the biggest cheating scandal in British sporting history. 

There are growing demands for a police investigation after the Premier League released the extraordinary verdict detailing the scope of the club's guilt, benefitting from £900million 'sham' deals. 

Now that City's shame has been laid bare – with the club still planning to appeal – the scale of their problems may multiply beyond sporting and financial punishment. 

Lord Cruddas, a Conservative peer whose CMC Markets firm sponsors Everton, has called for the matter to be passed to the police. 

He said: 'Surely the Man City findings are now a police matter.

'If accounts have been falsified and auditors have been misled then it is potentially a criminal matter. 

'The auditors will call in the police, directors are personally liable for any fraud of a UK company even if it is foreign owned.'

Former FA and City chairman David Bernstein has also said the case may 'need to be looked at by outside authorities'. 

Deals with sponsors were part of ‘a disguised funding scheme, whereby those companies were only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees’, the statement added, saying that ‘the remainder was funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club’.

The independent panel also found further ‘sham’ arrangements, funded by ADUG, which allowed City to record lower operating expenses than it incurred, along with a ‘”sham” circular arrangement with Fordham, an entity that purchased the club’s players’ image rights, that was funded by ADUG’.

The result was that the club had ‘filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators’.

With the club now expected to face incredibly severe sanctions, supporters have been left reeling by the verdict. 

The Citizens Trust fan group has urged togetherness in the face of the scandal engulfing the club. 

A statement read: 'The Citizens Trust has read both the Premier League’s statement on the verdict which finds Manchester City guilty of the majority of the charges, and the Club’s statement in rebuttal that reiterates their innocence and intent to appeal.

'We are still digesting the full findings of the independent Commission, released by the PL in redacted format, and we encourage Blues to do the same.

'Within an hour of the verdict dropping, we had an emergency meeting with the Football Supporters’ Association to assist us as we begin to consider our next steps, and what this means for the Trust, the City fanbase and our Club going forward as we await final outcomes of any sanctions and appeal.

'We will also be engaging with our members and the wider fanbase as soon as possible. This means consulting the membership, gauging opinion and holding an accessible meeting in Manchester city centre in the near future.

'We all need to look out for each other as supporters in these uncertain times ahead. We need to be strong, together.'