The Premier League champions have been fined a record amount by UEFA for breaching the Financial Fair Play rules. City will also have a reduced Champions League squad for the 2014-2015 campaign, limiting their players from 25 to 21.
The £49million fine has a £32 million suspension that the club could get back “if the club fulfills the operational and financial measures agreed with the UEFA CFCB (Club Financial Control Body).” Along with the reduction of players for Champions League, the team agreed to significantly limit their spending in transfer markets for the next two seasons, as well as making sure the wage bill for the entire team (playing and non-playing staff) is the same next season as it was this past season.
City released a statement saying they agreed to limit their spending to 60 million Euro (£49million). “The club's expenditure on new players for the upcoming summer transfer window, on top of income from players it might sell, will be limited to 60 million euros. This will have no material impact on the club's planned transfer activity."
The club only registered 23 players and fielded 21 of them in the UCL last season anyway, said that they weren’t even planning on spending more than £49million on players this summer, and expect next years wages to be way lower.
Just 7 days ago Manchester City were celebrating their 2nd EPL title in 3 years, Friday they were hit with a record fine by UEFA. (Photo: Twitter:@espnfc)
This was an ongoing case between UEFA and Manchester City. Despite combined losses of £150m over the two seasons under consideration (2011-12 and 2012-13) City say there was a “fundamental disagreement between the club's and UEFA’s respective interpretations of the FFP regulations on players purchased before 2010.”
The club said in a statement they wish they could pursue the case and present their position, but “our decision to do so must be balanced against the practical realities for our fans, for our partners and in the interests of the commercial operations of the club." Therefore they accepted the sanctions and to be honest, it doesn’t seem like this will truly hinder Manchester City.
The FFP rule is in place to make sure that clubs don’t spend money beyond their means. High spending has only been a growing trend in Europe and UEFA president Michel Platini has said that the big spending is ruining the game. UEFA says the FFP rule it is a vital element in restoring some sanity to football's inflationary spiral.
Manchester City isn’t the only club to fail the FFP rules. French Champions Paris St Germain, Turkish clubs Buraspor, Galatasaray and Trabzonspor as well as Russian sides Zenit St Petersburg, Anzhi Makhachkala and Rubin Kazan were all also violators. PSG received similar sanctions as Man City while the other clubs had reduced fines.
If everything goes smoothly Manchester City will be operating without any sanctions by the 2015-2016 season.
