Premier League club angry at being bracketed with PSG by Uefa and will fight cap on wages and Champions League squad
Manchester City will risk possible expulsion from next season’s Champions League if they fight the sanctions Uefa impose on them for being in breach of Financial Fair Play.
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City, who can take a giant stride towards the Premier League title by beating Aston Villa tonight, learned yesterday that Paris Saint-Germain have been hit by far harsher sanctions than had been expected for their own breach. It would be surprising if City faced similar tough punishment to PSG, who will receive a €60m (£49m) fine, a reduction from 25 to 21 in their squad for next season’s competition and the stipulation that their wage bill for next season’s competition must not exceed this season’s. It is by no means certain that City will face the same penalty as the French club – even though the PSG settlement reveals that the sanction regime is going to be tough.
City must either reach a settlement with Uefa’s Financial Control Body or a non-negotiable punishment will be put into the hands of the adjudicatory chamber of that body. City’s right of appeal then goes to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which would consider their case before the start of next season’s competition. Lawyer Daniel Geey, the football law specialist at the firm Field Fisher Waterhouse, who has advised clients and written extensively on FFP, said last night that an appeal did create a “higher risk of expulsion” for City.
“It seems logical that if you settle with Uefa you are going to receive greater leniency from the regulator,” Geey said. “That is the incentive to settle. If you challenge the decision, and in the case of a severe breach, you run the risk that every sanction is available to the FCB including expulsion from the Champions League.”
Uefa will allow the City owner Sheikh Mansour to cover any FFP fine with loans to the club (Getty)
City, who go into the Villa game at the Etihad Stadium tonight without the injured Sergio Aguero, appear to have grounds to argue that they should not get the same punishment as PSG, having produced audited accounts which saw them narrowly pass the FFP test in February. City have also halved their losses for each of the last two years.
They do seem likely to face a fine – PSG’s is payable over three years – and a stipulation that they reduce next season’s squad. The fine may not be damaging because it is likely to be excluded from the spending which forms part of future FFP calculations. Effectively that means their Abu Dhabi owners could provide loans to enable them to pay it. Keeping wages at the last financial year’s levels – another of the sanctions – is also eased by the fact that the pay-off for former manager Roberto Mancini and his substantial staff were included under “wages” for 2013. That figure would automatically have been reduced for this year anyway.
read more : http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/manchester-city-risk-champions-league-expulsion-if-they-tackle-uefa-over-ffp-punishments-9328548.html
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