City hit with UEFA fine, accept FA charge

LONDON: Manchester City have been fined €18,000 (RM86,000) by UEFA for three offences during their Champions League tie with Monaco at the Etihad last month, European football’s governing body said.

City were found guily of three charges on Friday concerning a pitch invasion, the throwing of objects from the crowd and a delayed kick-off during the last 16 first leg match on Feb 21.

News of UEFA’s sanctions came on the same day that City accepted a misconduct charge from the English Football Association (FA) relating to the behaviour of their players during last weekend’s Premier League draw with Liverpool.

The FA charge related to the reaction of City players after Liverpool were awarded a disputed penalty early in the second half following a challenge by Gael Clichy on Roberto Firmino.

City continued to complain to referee Michael Oliver after James Milner scored from the spot to give the visitors a 51st-minute lead at the Etihad, delaying the restart of the game.

In a separate development, the FA published their reasons for imposing a €35,000 (RM167,000) fine on City last month for breaching anti-doping rules.

Charges against City were levelled in January following an alleged third violation of “whereabouts” rules in the last 12 months.

Clubs must provide accurate details of training sessions and player whereabouts so they are available for drug testing at all times.

City’s doping infractions included failing to inform the FA of an extra first-team training session on July 12, 2016, a firstteam player missing a test on Sept 1 last year because the hotel address provided was no longer correct, and anti-doping officials being unable to test reserve players on Dec 7 because six of them had been given the day off without the FA being told.

The FA criticised City’s failure to heed previous warnings, saying: “It is no less concerning that in this case, despite the club being made aware of their breaches on two previous occasions (and) the resources available to the club, they failed to deal with these and implement a system to correct this.” — AFP