The pressure on Manchester City and other clubs to meet UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules has been brought into sharp focus with European soccer's governing body revealing that it intends to impose transfer bans on those who fail to comply with the new regulations, The (London) Times reported Thursday.
Although it has long maintained that the ultimate sanction for flouting the rules will be a ban from European competition, UEFA told the general assembly of the European Club Association (ECA) in Geneva that it wanted a range of other sanctions at its disposal as it prepares to take a hardline stance against clubs who fall foul of the criteria. Prize money could also be withheld.
The news was welcomed by Ernesto Paolillo, the Inter Milan chief executive and a prominent figure on the ECA's executive board, who has been working closely with UEFA with regards to Financial Fair Play, although City, like Chelsea, face a race against time to comply as the governing body forces clubs to spend only what they earn.
City's hopes of adhering to the rules were given a huge boost in July when they announced a 10-year stadium naming rights and shirt sponsorship deal worth up to £400 million (US$638 million) with Etihad, the Arab airline, which also resulted in the area around the club's ground becoming known as the Etihad Campus.
But critics have already questioned the deal given that City, like Etihad, are owned by the Abu Dhabi government, with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger going so far as to claim that the credibility of Financial Fair Play will be in tatters if City's agreement is allowed to stand.
Jean-Luc Dehaene, the former Belgian prime minister who is chairman of UEFA's Financial Control Panel, has already indicated that he intends to scrutinize the Etihad deal, although how it expects to determine whether or not it "exceeds market value" is unclear given the unprecedented nature of the arrangement.
City made losses of £121.3 million for the year ended May 31, 2010 and those losses are expected to have increased when the club releases its latest accounts next month.
Under Financial Fair Play, UEFA will allow total losses of about £30 million over three seasons starting from the present campaign.
Sanctions will not come into effect until 2014, meaning clubs have a small window of opportunity to get their books in order.
