Financial rules in ruin if City overturn ban
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I've been here seven months and have started to fit in and build an understanding (with Messi). We are getting used to each other and it will continue to get better with time.”
Barcelona’s Antoine Griezmann
of Abu Dhabi behind them, City have won 10 major trophies – including four Premier League titles.
Yet the prize that has eluded them is the one the Abu Dhabi project most desires – the Champions League.
The Chinese government have provided City with additional backing, as has US private equity firm Silver Lake.
They are all set to ensure City has a no expense spared legal team that will challenge the validity of UEFA’s ruling.
Should City succeed, the entire FFP system could collapse, according to Professor Simon Chadwick, director at the Centre for the Eurasian Sport Industry.
“In essence UEFA has to try to win this because, if it doesn’t win or is undermined in any way, then its position on Financial Fair Play begins to unravel… FFP is scuppered,” Chadwick told Britain’s Press Association news agency.
“However, they are not taking on Wigan, they are taking on Asian governments, US tech investors and some of the smartest, most-talented people in football.
“It is transnational power versus localised governance.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was just one of several leading football figures stunned by the severity of the UEFA punishment.
BBC Sport.
“It was a shock,” said Klopp, whose Champions League title holders are on well on course to succeed City as champions of England.
“What they have done on the football pitch is exceptional. The rest, I don’t know,” added Klopp.
“I really feel for them, Pep and the players, but that is how it is. They can appeal so we will see what happens then. It is obviously serious.
“But the football they played was exceptional and will always be exceptional,” insisted Klopp.
Meanwhile former City midfielder Joe Barton said it would be a blow to English football if his old club’s European ban was upheld.
“I don’t like the thought of seeing City not in the Champions League,” said Barton, now the manager of third-tier Fleetwood.
“With that level of a manager and players... you have to be in Europe’s major competition.
“For English football, you want your best teams in that competition,” he added.
If City’s appeal fails, manager Pep Guardiola and several star players could leave the club.
Guardiola’s contract runs until the end of the 2020/21 season, but the only major task left for the Catalan in Manchester is to make City European champions for the first time. – AFP