Manchester City are odds on favourites to take the Barclays Premier League title today. However, on Monday Uefa may spoil their parade by announcing the sanctions to be imposed on them for breaching financial fair play regulations.
Manchester City are odds on favourites to take the Barclays Premier League title today. However, on Monday Uefa may spoil their parade by announcing the sanctions to be imposed on them for breaching financial fair play regulations.
A high-powered delegation from City has been at Uefa headquarters in Switzerland, but the two sides are still a long away apart in their interpretation of the club’s accounts and the appropriate sanction to be applied. If agreement is not reached in the negotiations, the consequence could be a heavier sanction being applied on City than has been talked about so far.
Whilst a heavy fine could be dealt with by City, the club is affronted by the notion that they are rule breakers. Moreover, more serious than a fine could be some kind of limit on transfers and the restriction of their Champions League squad to 21 rather than 25 players, of which eight will have to qualify as home grown. If City succeed in lifting the Premier League title for a second time, Champions League success becomes the key target, alongside defending the domestic title.
If City thinks any penalty imposed is too harsh, they could take it to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. However, if any agreed settlement is seen as too lenient, other clubs could appeal for a stronger sanction. Arsene Wenger has argued that City should be expelled from the Champions League for their over spending.
None of the commentary I have seen mentions the possibility of an appeal to the Euopean courts, given that the whole financial fair play edifice is constructed on flimsy legal foundations.