Manchester City have been handed a transfer ban on signing academy players.
Manchester City have joined Liverpool in being banned from signing academy players for tapping up two schoolboys – including one aged only 11.
City have been handed a ban the same length as the one faced by Liverpool, a two-year transfer suspension on players registered with a rival Premier League or EFL side in the preceding 18 months.
They were also fined £300,000, which is actually £200,000 MORE than Liverpool, after the Merseyside club were found guilty of tapping up one schoolboy footballer.
The 11-year-old City were found to have broken the rules trying to sign is reportedly a midfielder that they brought in from another Merseyside club, Everton, last year. The other player was a 15-year-old, also a midfielder – this time from Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The Premier League also looked into their recruitment of 16-year-old goalkeeper Louie Moulden from Liverpool, but this move has now been cleared to continue, and the club will not face any punishment in that case.
The Premier League released a statement that read:
“The Premier League has sanctioned Manchester City FC for breaches of its Youth Development Rules. The breaches concern approaches to two separate Academy players whilst they were each registered with another club.
“Following an investigation, the Premier League found evidence that the club’s conduct prior to applying to register the players contravened League rules. This included evidence of contact between the club and members of each academy player’s family while those academy players were still registered with their previous clubs.
“Manchester City will pay a fine of £300,000 and will be prohibited from registering any academy players in the under-10 to under-18 age range who have been registered with a Premier League or EFL club in the preceding 18 months. This ban will last for two years. The period of this ban from 30 June 2018 onwards will be suspended for three years to be activated in the event of any similar breach by the club.
In each case, the academy player was conditionally registered with Manchester City while the Premier League’s investigation was ongoing. As a result of the club’s breaches, the players’ registrations will be terminated on a specified date, with no compensation rights retained by the club, and the club will not be permitted to re-register them as academy players. In addition, Manchester City has offered to pay compensation to each player’s previous club, and maintain educational provision for each player until the completion of his GCSEs.”
