{"id":801369,"date":"2026-10-13T15:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T15:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/801369\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T15:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T15:42:09","slug":"manchester-city-v-psg-is-a-reminder-of-the-path-not-taken-in-sanctions-battles-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/801369\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester City v PSG is a reminder of the path not taken in sanctions battles | Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nasser al-Khelaifi was among those unhappy with the timing of the release of Manchester City\u2019s guilty verdict<\/a> by the Premier League a fortnight ago, although his visit with Paris Saint-Germain to the Etihad Stadium for a Champions League game on Wednesday provides a timely reminder that it could have been far worse.<\/p>\n

The two clubs are linked by more than their ownership by Gulf states, being among the first found to have broken Uefa\u2019s financial fair play rules in 2014<\/a>, and by a magnitude that would make subsequent offenders pale in comparison.<\/p>\n

Uefa\u2019s investigators found that between 2011 and 2013, when the maximum permitted loss for a club playing in European competitions was \u20ac45m (\u00a338m), PSG\u2019s deficit was \u20ac218m and City\u2019s \u20ac188m, yet both clubs avoided charges by signing settlement agreements<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With hindsight the terms seem generous to say the least, with sanctions limited to a financial penalty of \u20ac20m each, plus more onerous restrictions on their spending in subsequent years. City and PSG were made liable to pay a further \u20ac40m if they broke the terms of their settlements.<\/p>\n

Uefa said in April 2017 that both clubs had \u201cfully complied with all the requirements\u201d but it remains an issue of contention whether City stuck to those spending limits. In 2020, after an investigation by Uefa\u2019s investigatory chamber, the club were suspended from the Champions League for two years<\/a> for \u201coverstating its sponsorship revenue\u201d between 2012 and 2016, before this was overturned by an appeal<\/a> to the court of arbitration for sport, which found: \u201cMost of the alleged breaches were either not established or time-barred.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, last month, the Premier League announced that an independent commission convened to examine more than 100 charges against City had found that between seasons 2009-10 and 2017-18 the club was \u201csignificantly in breach\u201d of Uefa\u2019s spending limits and had \u201cfiled misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances\u201d. City have appealed against the commission\u2019s verdict.<\/p>\n

The PSG chair, Nasser-al-Khelaifi, and his Manchester City counterpart Khaldoon-al-Mubarak both hold senior positions in their nations\u2019 sovereign wealth funds. Photograph: Jean Catuffe\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

PSG, where al-Khelaifi has been the president and face of the Qatari ownership since 2011, were fined a further \u20ac10m by Uefa<\/a> in 2022 for not complying with financial rules since 2018, with another \u20ac50m suspended.<\/p>\n

Part of al-Khelaifi\u2019s annoyance at the Premier League last month stemmed from the release of the independent commission\u2019s core judgment on City overshadowing the general assembly of European Football Clubs in Copenhagen, including his keynote speech, which featured City\u2019s chief executive, Ferran Soriano, sitting in the front row before scurrying away from television cameras.<\/p>\n

In his speech as EFC\u2019s chair, al-Khelaifi outlined his plans to make it a global organisation and aimed some barbs at Fifa\u2019s president, Gianni Infantino, over the importance of good governance, a far cry from his attitude towards Infantino a decade ago.<\/p>\n

A 2018 investigation from the German outlet Der Spiegel<\/a> claimed that Infantino, then Uefa\u2019s general secretary, had played a key role in ensuring PSG and City avoided more severe sanctions in 2014, including meeting with officials from both clubs for \u201csecret talks, even supplying them with confidential materials\u201d that involved suggested \u201ccompromises that he was unauthorised to propose\u201d.<\/p>\n

Der Spiegel also published an email from Infantino to City\u2019s chair, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, sent on 2 May 2014, in which he outlined the terms of a proposed settlement<\/a>. \u201cYou will see that I\u2019ve sometimes chosen a wording which \u2018looks\u2019 more \u2018strong,\u2019\u201d Infantino wrote. \u201cPlease read the document with this spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Der Spiegel claimed that when Gianni Infantino was at Uefa he played a role in lessening Manchester City\u2019s sanctions. Photograph: Lee Smith\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Settlements with both clubs were agreed that month, although not before the head of Uefa\u2019s investigatory chamber Brian Quinn, a former senior official at the Bank of England, resigned amid reports he considered the agreements too lenient.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn cases where clubs overspend and balance their books only thanks to money injections, a settlement agreement has always been the preferred solution,\u201d Uefa said at the time. \u201cIn such cases, the focus is on limiting the revenues coming from outside football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Infantino said his \u201cjob entails having discussions, having conversations, exchanging documents, drafts, ideas\u201d and that he had been carrying out his duties \u201cin an honest way, in a professional way and trying to defend the interests of football\u201d.<\/p>\n

PSG insist they have \u201calways acted in full compliance with the laws and regulations enacted by sports institutions\u201d and City\u2019s protestations of innocence are well established, but the clubs now find themselves on different sides of the divide.<\/p>\n

Whereas al-Khelaifi will arrive in Manchester as the face of the establishment, with EFC joint shareholders with Uefa in the commercial company that runs the Champions League<\/a>, City remain the insurgents, continuing to rage against the machine.<\/p>\n

Many City fans will continue to show their disdain for Uefa by booing the Champions League anthem, but some may be quietly wondering whether their Abu Dhabi leadership could have followed the more diplomatic path taken by PSG.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nasser al-Khelaifi was among those unhappy with the timing of the release of Manchester City\u2019s guilty verdict by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-801369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}