Manchester City are standing firm over a possible Uefa investigation of claims they subverted financial fair play (FFP) rules.
The Blues were said this week to have “refused” to cooperate after being contacted by the club financial control body (CFCB) – which governs FFP – before Christmas.
City were said to have tried to bypass the FFP rules, which were aimed at limiting a club’s losses, by channelling funds through Abu Dhabi-based sponsors, most notably main backer Etihad Airways.
That was the basis of a series of articles by a group of journalists calling themselves Football Leaks, revealed by German newspaper Der Spiegel.
Uefa decided to look into the matter, but City’s stance from the start has been to refuse to comment, based on their claim that the leaks were taken out of context from “hacked or stolen” emails.
City are still maintaining silence on the matter, but they have already submitted masses of documentary evidence to Uefa over financial fair play, since its introduction in 2011.
City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak and chief executive Ferran Soriano are standing firm over FFP allegations
Their position would seem to be not that they are refusing to cooperate, but that they have already handed over all the documents they have on the matter.
That is backed up by the fact that the documents City DID supply to Uefa resulted in sanctions in May 2014 – City received a 60million euros fine with 40million of it suspended, along with a Uefa squad size reduction, and transfer spending and salary caps.
Their position appears to be that they are not handing over any more documents simply because they have no more to give, rather than “refusing” to cooperate.
That would leave Uefa trying to build a case against City on the basis of the emails, which City maintain were illegally obtained.
If City were to be punished over the matter, a legal challenge would almost certainly follow, and Uefa would be on shaky ground if the emails were illegally obtained.
Some of the emails cited by Football Leaks may even have been obtained by a security breach at Uefa itself, making action against City, and any subsequent legal challenge by the club, even more complex for the governing body.
City say that the allegations made by Football Leaks were taken out of a far wider context.
Last month, Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin said: “We are assessing the situation. We have an independent body [the CFCB] working on it. Very soon you will have an answer on what will happen in this concrete case.”
Uefa have issued no update to that position, but there are elements with their structure pushing for an investigation.
City have said nothing about the matter since their initial statement which read: “We will not be providing any comment on out of context materials purportedly hacked or stolen from City Football Group and Manchester City personnel and associated people. The attempt to damage the club’s reputation is organised and clear.”
Be the first to comment