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maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 15 MAY 2019 20 FOOTBALL SPORTS UEFA investigators want Man- chester City to be banned from the Champions League for a season if they are found guilty of breaking financial rules. However, according to one well-placed source, a final de- cision is yet to be made by chief investigator Yves Leterme. The former Belgian prime minister, chairman of the in- vestigatory panel of Uefa's in- dependent financial control board, is set to make a recom- mendation this week. With no vote in such cases, the final say lies with him but several of his colleagues are understood to have firmly ex- pressed the view at a recent meeting that a season-long ban would be a suitable punish- ment if City are found guilty. What are City alleged to have done? Leterme and his team have been looking at evidence first uncovered in a series of leaks published by the German newspaper Der Spiegel last year. The reports alleged that Manchester City had broken Financial Fair Play regulations by inflating the value of a mul- timillion-pound sponsorship deal. City were fined £49m in 2014 for a previous breach of regulations. The Premier League cham- pions denied any wrongdoing, and Uefa said it could not com- ment on an ongoing investiga- tion, but according to the New York Times, investigators now want rules upheld and City punished with a ban. Uefa's adjudicatory chamber would have to decide whether it agreed with any recommen- dation from Leterme - ex- pected in the next 48 hours - although it is unlikely to ap- ply to next season's competi- tion because City could appeal, and even take their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. But it would still be a major blow for a club desperate to win Europe's most prestigious club competition for the first time, and who could also soon face a transfer ban, with the FA, Premier League and Fifa also currently investigating City over their signing of youth players. Earlier this season, a state- ment from Manchester City said: "The accusation of finan- cial irregularities is entirely false. "Manchester City welcomes the opening of a formal Uefa investigation as an opportunity to bring to an end the specula- tion resulting from the illegal hacking and out of context publication of City emails. "The club's published ac- counts are full and complete and a matter of legal and regu- latory record." Financial Fair Play was in- troduced by Uefa to prevent clubs in its competitions from spending beyond their means and stamp out what its then president Michel Platini called "financial doping" within foot- ball. Under the rules, financial losses are limited and clubs are also obliged to meet all their transfer and employee payment commitments at all times. Clubs need to balance foot- ball-related expenditure - transfers and wages - with tel- evision and ticket income, plus revenues raised by their com- mercial departments. Money spent on stadiums, training facilities, youth development or community projects is ex- empt. The Club Financial Control Body (CFCB), set up by Uefa, has the ultimate sanction of banning clubs from Uefa com- petitions, with other potential punishments including warn- ings, fines, withholding prize money, transfer bans, points deductions, a ban on regis- tration of new players and a restriction on the number of players who can be registered for Uefa competitions. Has anyone been punished before? In 2014, Qatar-owned Paris St-Germain received a similar financial punishment to the one City received. PSG were deemed to have breached FFP rules when the CFCB decided their back-dated £167m sponsorship contract with the Qatar Tourism Au- thority, which wiped out their losses, had an unfair value. That meant the French side exceeded allowed financial losses by a wide margin when, under FFP rules, clubs were limited to losses of £37m over the previous two years. They received a fine, a spend- ing cap and were only allowed to register 21 players for the Champions League for a sea- son. PSG also remain under in- vestigation for their 2017-18 finances when they signed Neymar from Barcelona for a world record £222m euros (£200m) and Kylian Mbappe from Monaco, initially on loan, for 180m euros (£165.7m). Manchester City could face a Uefa ban from Champions League for a season Manchester City won the Premier League for the fourth time in eight seasons on Sunday

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