The Great Debate: How should Man City be punished for FFP breaches? | OneFootball

Uefa threw a grenade into the world of European football last Friday by announcing that Manchester City are to be banned from the Champions League.

The Etihad outfit have been found guilty of “serious breaches” of Financial Fair Play regulations and will not be allowed to compete in European competition for the next two campaigns, pending an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

City vehemently deny all wrongdoing but if they are found guilty a second time, what kind of punishment should City get?

Our writers have their say.

Joel Sanderson-Murray

Whether the rules FFP have put in place are the right way to keep the game ‘fair’ is up for debate.

But there are rules and if City have broken those rules, they deserve to be punished, as would any team that tries to do the same thing.

Relegation to League Two is the only way they’ll learn.

Or, Uefa should  stick to their current ruling of a two-year ban and send out a strong statement to the rest of Europe.

Matt Frohlich

The €30m fine, or any fine for that matter, seems irrelevant, as we all know that’s nothing for any Premier League club.

The only way City would really learn is by Uefa sticking with the two-year ban and if the Premier League get involved, a huge points deduction would also suffice.

My one requirement would be that if they lay down the law now, it needs to be consistent across all cases.

Alex Mott

A two-year ban seems slightly excessive to me but I do think that Manchester City deserve some kind of punishment for their alleged crimes.

A single season barring them from the Champions League feels about right and will hopefully be enough to put them, and other clubs, off doing similar things in the future.

Dan Burke

I think there’s a long way to go in this case yet and it will be interesting to see how the CAS views it.

If they do rule in favour of Uefa then City should definitely be punished and I think a one-year European ban and a hefty fine would be about right.

Even as a City fan, I would feel uneasy about them getting off completely scot-free on a technicality.

Two years feels excessive, though, and I do wonder whether Uefa have issued a strong punishment initially, knowing full well there is every chance it will be reduced to one year following an appeal.

Time will tell.

Pádraig Whelan

Let’s have some fun with the punishment shall we?

I’m in favour of all of City’s players being auctioned around the rest of the league in an NFL draft style scenario.

Realistically, I think they will get their ban reduced on appeal to one-year including their €30m fine.