UEFA lift sanctions on City after club curb spending

GENEVA: UEFA lifted key Financial Fair Play sanctions from Manchester City and Paris St Germain after both clubs met spending limits imposed last year.

The decision lets both clubs spend more on player transfers and wages, UEFA said yesterday. Both clubs also avoided being

 fined 20mil (RM84mil) of Champions League prize money they earned last season. Fines would have been triggered for further over-spending.

PSG president Nasser Al Khelaifi welcomed a “fair and constructive decision” by UEFA.

“We are now able to be more active on the transfer market to make our team even more competitive by recruiting the right talents that our team need,” Al Khelaifi said in an interview published on the club website.

Last off-season, the threat of further sanctions appeared to block Man City’s interest in signing Radamel Falcao from Monaco. PSG also ended attempts to sign Angel Di Maria from Real Madrid. Both players joined Manchester United.

One reward for curbing transfer and salary spending was that Man City and PSG can select from squad lists of 25 senior players in the upcoming Champions League.

Both had only 21 eligible last season as part of initial sanctions imposed by UEFA in May 2014.

 Then, both clubs forfeited 20mil of Champions League prize money.

Man City and PSG, then the champions of England and France, were the two biggest victims of the first round of sanctions in UEFA’s financial project to cut club losses across Europe.

Both had spent heavily in recent seasons to chase success quickly, after being bought with sovereign wealth from the ruling families of Abu Dhabi and Qatar, respectively. — AFP