Manchester City Still Haunted by FFP Violations

DBasia.news – Manchester City has indeed managed to evade UEFA sanctions related to allegations of violations of Financial Fair Play (FFP). However, The Citizens are not completely out of this case.

In February last year, UEFA imposed a ban on Manchester City from appearing in European competitions for violating FFP regulations. The accusations given were about manipulating income reports in order to be able to issue transfer funds exceeding the regulated limit.

This relates to Manchester City’s relationship with their main sponsor Etihad Airways. Both parties are considered to have inflated the cooperation contract in the period 2012 to 2016.

Manchester City emphatically denied the accusations. They later won the case after an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

CAS ruled that Manchester City were not found to have violated FFP regulations. But city rivals Manchester City was still sentenced to a fine of 30 million euros.

A year later, new evidence related to Manchester City’s fraudulent actions was revealed to the public. This is a conversation between Manchester City and the CEO of Etihad Airways via email.

In the conversation, Etihad Airways turned out to only pay 4 million pounds per season to Manchester City. Though the contract is known to the public worth 12 million pounds.

“Etihad’s commitment is for £4m and the remaining £8m is handled separately by the UAE’s executive authorities,” the email read.

This polemic cannot be separated from the presence of the figure of Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan as the owner of Manchester City. In question is a billionaire who is also a member of the kingdom of Abu Dhabi.

The man who is familiarly called Sheikh Mansour could have financed Manchester City’s expenses from his own pocket. However, this was not in accordance with regulations so Etihad Airways was appointed as an intermediary under the guise of sponsorship.

This new evidence has the potential to make UEFA or the Premier League continue the allegations against Manchester City. The club based at the Etihad Stadium itself has not issued an official statement in response to the leak of new evidence.