Manchester City, PSG face transfer bans as part of FFP sanctions

Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan (2nd R) in the crowd before a Manchester City game.

Premier League title contenders Manchester City and reigning Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint Germain (PSG) could run into troubled waters as a Financial Fair Play(FFP) ruling threatens to declare the spending that turned them into footballing heavyweights overnight as a breach of its cost-control regulations.

Reports emerged on Monday night that Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan who pumped money into the club by truckloads will be found guilty of breaching FFP rules and is unlikely to get a reprieve.

UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body created to police “greed, reckless spending and financial insanity” will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday to take a call on the clubs which will be prosecuted for breach of rules and French giants PSG are expected to be on the list.

The list is believed to contain around 20 teams but Manchester City and PSG are on course to be hit hardest of all, barring the emergence of new evidence which shows their compliance with the rules, .

Although both teams do not face a threat of expulsion from Europe’s biggest club football competition, the UEFA Champions League, the clubs could be sanctioned with a heavy fine and a transfer ban in order to prevent any addition of players to an already hugely expensive squad.

Other Premier League big wigs such as Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea have all confirmed that they are not under investigation by UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body after having complied with FFP rules which forbade clubs to accrue losses in excess of €45?million (£37.2? million) during the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons.

City have posted losses of £149?million over that period with a large chunk of it presumably coming from adding players like Sergio Agüero, Samir Nasri, Gaël Clichy, Javi Garcia and Matija Nastasic along with paying them huge wages. The club is also being closely scrutinized for their 10-year, £350?million sponsorship deal with Etihad which is believed to have been penned only in an attempt to balance their books and show compliance with FFP rules.

FFP rules prohibit transactions with companies which have ties to a club or its owners being used in this way unless they can be shown to represent fair market value.

Both Manchester City and PSG have refused to comment on the UEFA Club Financial Control Body’s probe into their finances while the UEFA too have refused to comment about the identities of the clubs in danger of being sanctioned.

It said in a statement on Monday: “Uefa will only communicate once decisions have been taken by the CFCB investigatory chamber, which we anticipate will happen at the beginning of May.”