City in trouble over FFP breach

LONDON: European soccer’s leadership has an initial conclusion on leaked Manchester City correspondence: The club has been misleading UEFA over its finances. With the power to ban clubs from the Champions League, the consequences from UEFA could be severe for the Premier League champions.uefa discovered from reading internal emails from City, which were published by German media outlet Der Spiegel last month, the extent of schemes by the club to allegedly cover up true source of income in a bid to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations, a person with direct knowledge of the situation said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the situation publicly while UEFA conducts a review.

City has been transformed into an English soccer power in the decade since being bought by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family, winning the Premier League three times since 2012. But unfettered spending on players has been restricted by European soccer’s governing body regardless of the owners’ wealth.

“We are assessing the situation. We have an independent body working on it,” Ceferin said Monday. “Very soon you will have the answers.”

FIFA PAYMENTS FOR WORLD CUP PLAYERS

ZURICH: Manchester City is at the top of the FIFA list of clubs receiving payments from World Cup revenues for releasing players for national team duty in Russia. FIFA says Man City will get $5 million from the total fund of $209 million. FIFA says 416 clubs from 63 different countries qualified for payments. The money was paid at a daily rate of $8,530 for each of the 736 players selected.