The Premier League board are now involved in the investigation as well after a German news publication, Der Spiegel leaked financial records of the club. An amount of £59.5m was noted down as sponsorship payments from Etihad Airlines when in fact it was directly coming in from the clubs owners, Abu Dhabi United Group.
This is a complete breach of UEFA’s financial fair play rules and could lead to serious consequences for the Citizens.
The head of independent Club Financial Control Body, Yves Leterme told Belgian news outlet, Sport and Strategy, “If it is true what has been written, there might be a serious problem. This can lead to the heaviest punishment: exclusion from the Uefa competitions.”
“If the information is correct, this possibly goes against truthful reporting. The financial fair play rules are based on a system of declaration, three months after the clubs have closed their accounts, they have to deposit their figures.”
“Then we do random checks on the truthfulness of those figures. The accounts are examined and approved internally and externally.”
The UEFA president, Aleksander Ceferin also added, “We are assessing the situation. We have an independent body working on it. Very soon we will have the answers on what will happen in this concrete case. City have been sanctioned over financial fair play before, fined £49million in 2014 as well as having their Champions League squad capped.”
See Also: Pressure on Manchester City: Kirkland