City given ban for tapping-up rules breach

Club hit over poaching two academy players Sanction follows Anfield schoolboy controversy

Manchester City yesterday joined Liverpool in being banned from signing academy players for tapping up two schoolboys – including one who was aged just 11.

City were given the same length suspension as the Anfield club, a two-year transfer embargo on players registered with a rival Premier League or EFL side in the preceding 18 months, with the second year’s ban suspended for three years.

They were also fined £300,000, £200,000 more than Liverpool, who were last month found guilty of tapping up one schoolboy footballer and offering inducements to him and his family.

The fallout from that case has been exclusively documented by The Daily Telegraph, which also revealed that City’s recruitment of three academy players were under scrutiny. The 11-year-old they were found to have broken the rules trying to sign was a midfielder who joined them from Everton last summer - he is now 12 - the other being a 15-year-old midfielder from Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The club, who unlike Liverpool were not found guilty of offering inducements, were also investigated over their recruitment of 16-yearold goalkeeper Louie Moulden from Anfield but that move was cleared to proceed.

The Daily Telegraph has chosen not to name either of the under-age players, who the Premier League forced City to release from their academy on a specified date.

The Premier League said in a statement: “Following an investigation, the Premier League found evidence that the club’s conduct prior to applying to register the players contravened League rules.”

City’s agreement to pay compensation to Everton and Wolves, as well as the private-school fees of both youngsters until the age of 16, contrasted sharply with Liverpool’s response to their own tapping-up scandal. The 13-year-old boy whose move to Anfield from Stoke City collapsed was left unable to play for another academy until his parent club were paid £49,000.

His own parents were also lumbered with thousands of pounds of debt in school fees Liverpool previously agreed to pay.

In an exclusive first interview with The Daily Telegraph this week, the boy said the case had left him feeling “sad” and “stressed”, while his father claimed his own health had also suffered.

City last night insisted they would have paid the compensation and school fees of the boys they were guilty of tapping-up irrespective of the outcry sparked by the Liverpool scandal.

That outcry prompted the Premier League to reveal this week that it had offered to meet representatives of the boy’s family “with a view to finding a constructive outcome for the young person involved”.

Amid ongoing negotiations between the parties to avert legal action, his parents were unable to comment last night about the news.

Meanwhile, it is understood that while City will release the younger boy imminently, the 15-year-old will remain registered with them until he completes his GCSES in order not to disrupt his education.

They and Liverpool are the first clubs to fall foul of tough new Premier League rules designed to clamp down on the poaching of academy players.