Manchester City Football Club, located in Manchester, England is one of the clubs playing in the Premier League.
The club which was established in 1880 at St. Mark was formerly Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894.
Presently, the club is behind Arsenal in the Premier League as second on the table with 45 points.
Over the course of its history, the club has won eight league titles, six FA Cups, eight League Cups, six FA Community Shields, and one European Cup Winners’ Cup. The club joined the Football League in 1892 and won their first major honour, the FA Cup, in 1904.
However, on Monday, the club was charged by the Premier League for breaking Financial Fair Play across nine seasons.
The Premier League confirmed that a number of alleged breaches between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons have been referred to an independent commission with the conclusion of a four-year investigation.
Here are five things to about Man City’s FFP breach
1. The charges against Man City are connected to financial information regarding revenue, details of manager and player remuneration, UEFA regulations, profitability and sustainability and cooperation with Premier League investigations.
2. In February 2020, the club were banned from the Champions League and fined £25 million after they were found to have seriously misled the European football governing body, UEFA, and broken financial fair play rules. This was then lifted by the court of arbitration for sport which also reduced the club’s fine to £9m.
3. In March 2019, the Premier League affirmed an investigation was underway after a number of top-flight clubs raised the issue of the allegations against the club.
The statement from the Premier League read, ‘The proceedings before the Commission will, in accordance with Premier League Rule W.82, be confidential and heard in private. Under Premier League Rule W.82.2, the Commission’s final award will be published on the Premier League’s website.
“This confirmation is made in accordance with Premier League Rule W.82.1. The Premier League will be making no further comment in respect of this matter until further notice.”
4. On May 16, 2014, the club was found guilty of breaching UEFA rules around FFP and was fined €60 million but later reduced to €20m and given short-term caps on squad size and spending.
On November 5, 2018, ‘Football Leaks’ documents, published by German magazine Der Spiegel, alleged that the club committed further FFP rules violations.
5. UEFA banned Manchester City from the Champions League on February 14, 2020 for two seasons and fined them €30m for FFP violations and in July 2021, a Court of Appeal decision revealed that City challenged the panel set up by the Premier League and had unsuccessfully challenged demands to hand over documents and information.
For violating the FFP, Manchester city could face Premier League expulsion or points deduction over the charge of breaking financial rules over a hundred times on sponsorship deals, secret contracts and payments.
