Manchester City Hit with Champions League Suspension
Earlier this week Manchester City faced a 2 year ban from the European Champions League due to various breaches of European soccer’s financial rules & regulations. They have been accused of primarily two things. The first is falsely infalting sponsorship revenues when making submitions as part of the Financial Fair Play (FFP) compliance process. The other is breaching regulations by failing to cooperate in the investigation of the case by the Club Financial Control Body (CFCB).
Considered one of the richest soccer clubs in history as well as six times Premier league winners, Manchester City has been found guilty of multiple violations in relation to club licensing and financial fair play rules. These rules include cost controls that has been put by the Union of European Football Association (UEFA) to try decreasing the growing gap between rich clubs and poor ones in European leagues. Nonetheless, the UEFA has issued a fine of $32.5 million dollars due to the serious breaches and failure to cooperate with UEFA’s investigators.
Manchester City’s CEO spoke on the matter. “We are looking for an early resolution obviously through a thorough process and a fair process so my best hope is that this will be finished before the beginning of the summer,” he said in a video on Manchester City’s website. “Ultimately based on our experience and our perception this seems to be less about justice and more about politics.”
However, this ban has no effect on this year’s Champions League as Manchester City will be facing Real Madrid on February 26 in the first leg in the round of 16. In addition, Manchester City may be able to delay a ban for next season if its appeal is not resolved before the 2020/2021 Champions League which begins this fall.
With the investigation news still coming in, it is hard to tell what the effect will be on its players and the organization as a whole at this time. The wealthy organization is definitely threatened by this and could take a financial hit, but their most important asset is their impressive roster. Manchester City is a club with high expectations and have put an extreme amount of money into their players and facilities.