UEFA will name and shame the clubs who ‘cheat’ fair play rules

MANCHESTER CITY and the rest of Europe’s cashrich new elite have been warned there will be no hiding place if they try to cheat their way past financial fair play.

UEFA are set to name and shame clubs found guilty of breaking the rules next month — with sanctions to come into effect before the start of next season.

They have the backing of Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis, whose club look set to be left behind once again in the hunt for the major prizes because of overspending by rivals.

City are understood to be one of 76 clubs being investigated for possible breaches of UEFA’s criteria, as are Paris SaintGermain, both of whose main sponsorship deals are linked to their owners, from Abu Dhabi and Qatar respectively.

City’s latest accounts reveal several mechanisms apparently designed to beat the system. These include image rights sales plus the club paying themselves for services provided to their new franchises in New York and Melbourne.

PSG have a sponsorship deal with the Qatar Tourist Authority announced last year and thought to be worth about 200million euros (£166m), with a further 125m euros (£104) reportedly backdated to the 2011-12 season, which effectively wiped out the club’s losses for that period. ‘Clubs have known this was coming,’ said Gazidis. ‘We don’t hope for sanctions but we need to moderate behaviour and create a more stable environment for clubs, players and fans so that we don’t have the problems endemic in the game.’

Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho recently accused unnamed clubs of ‘dodgy FFP’ and UEFA’s Scottish head of legal affairs Alistair Bell said: ‘It’s fair to say that all the arguments brought by the clubs will be heavily checked. I’m not saying people are trying to cheat, I’m saying we have put some expert people on this body and we expect they will be able to do their job in a thorough way.’