Has Manchester City already been charged with FFP?

By James Cormack

As it turns out, Manchester City may have been the bad guy all along.

Alleged financial misdeeds appear to have aided the club’s rise over the past 15 years, with City eventually emerging as the Premier League’s supreme force under Pep Guardiola since 2016.

While the lack of continental success continues to gnaw at the Spaniard, the club’s domestic successes in recent years are unmatched.

But it’s all finally achieved by them.

A lengthy investigation by the Premier League says City have breached the league’s financial regulations over 100 times in total since 2009. It’s a serious problem and one that could result in harsh punishments.

However, it’s not the first time Manchester City have had problems with the FFP. Here’s a reminder of their history with the UEFA regulations.

2014 – Violation of UEFA’s “break even” rule

City’s first FFP incident was nine years ago, in 2014. Citizens were among several clubs to breach UEFA’s ‘break-even’ rule, which meant they were spending more than they were earning.

Manchester City were one of nine clubs implicated for similar offenses at the time, with Paris Saint-Germain also accused.

As a result, City were hit with a €60m fine, their UEFA squad was reduced from 25 to 21 players, they were forced to limit transfer costs, while restrictions were also placed on squad wages. for two years.

2020 – Circumvention of a two-year European ban

This scandal ultimately culminated in a major triumph for the city in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in 2020.

UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) had imposed a two-year ban (from competitions in Europe) and a €30m fine on the club for breaching the FFP and failing to cooperate with the investigation.

CFCB, thanks to leaked emails posted in The mirrorsaid City had disguised the equity funding as sponsorship contributions, but the CAS ruled against UEFA. The court said: “Most of the alleged violations reported by the CFCB Adjudicatory Chamber were not established or were time-barred”, before adding that it was “inappropriate” to impose a ban for failing to comply with the investigation.

As a result of that ruling, City’s two-year ban was overturned but they still had to pay a €10m fine for failing to aid UEFA’s investigation.

This article was originally posted on 90min.com as Has Manchester City already been charged with FFP?.