Manchester City and Paris Saint Germain could face Champions League ban next season
European giants Manchester City and Paris Saint Germain are in danger of getting a ban from next season's UEFA Champions League. There are widespread allegations regarding their repetitive breaching in the rules of Financial Fair Play(FFP).
As revealed in the football leaks scandal which was published by German magazine Der Spiegel last month, City breached FFP rules by over 188 million Euros in 2014. The same report mentioned that PSG breached the laws by over 215 million Euros at the same time.
City were also accused of backdating their sponsorship deals to manipulate their income as per the reports. Moreover, their owner, Sheikh Mansour, was accused of funding parts to escape UEFA sanctions. There are claims that almost 60 million Euros were paid directly by their owners, which were written off as sponsorship deals.
Aleksander Ceferin, the UEFA president, speaking after a meeting of the executives, said: “We are assessing the situation. We have an independent body working on it. Very soon we will have the answers on what will happen in this concrete case.”
Despite sponsorship scandals, both City and PSG are in more trouble due to their marquee signings over the last few seasons. City had a huge summer transfer window in 2015 when they brought Raheem Sterling, Kevin De Bruyne and Nicolas Otamendi into their club.
On the other hand, Paris Saint Germain were struggling to comply with the FFP regulations since the arrival of their two talisman, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar Jr.
There are concerns that Paris Saint Germain might be forced to sell several stars in order to present balanced transfer budgets and comply with the regulations of UEFA's Financial Fair Play. Moreover, there are investigations regarding how they brought Kylian Mbappe from AS Monaco into the club, which was initially a loan move.
Earlier, UEFA issued a statement confirming that the previous cases will be reopened and investigations will continue if new evidence came to light. If the investigations persist and evidence is found, the European giants can face massive punishment and might be banished from the UEFA Champions League in the process.