Manchester City’s ban by Uefa from European club competition for the next two seasons after being found to have committed “serious breaches concerning club licensing and financial fair play regulations is making the headlines across the globe.
In addition to the ban, the football governing body also fined the reigning Premier League champion, 30m euros (£25m), both sanctions subject to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which the club hierarchy proclaimed that they would be approaching.
Recall that Uefa launched an investigation after German newspaper Der Spiegel published leaked documents in November 2018 alleging City had inflated the value of a sponsorship deal, misleading European football’s governing body and appeared to have met FFP rules requiring clubs to break even.
Uefa introduced Financial Fair Play to prevent clubs in its competitions from spending beyond their means and stamp out what its then president Michel Platini called “financial doping” within football.
Under the rules, financial losses are limited and clubs are also obliged to meet all their transfer and employee payment commitments at all times.
Clubs need to balance football-related expenditure – transfers and wages – with television and ticket income, plus revenues raised by their commercial departments. Money spent on stadiums, training facilities, youth development or community projects is exempt.
The CFCB, set up by Uefa, has the ultimate sanction of banning clubs from Uefa competitions, with other potential punishments including warnings, fines, withholding prize money, transfer bans, points deductions, a ban on registration of new players and a restriction on the number of players who can be registered for Uefa competitions.
