Manchester City and 3 other historical sanctions

On February 14, UEFA announced that Manchester City would face a penalty consisting of a fine of 30 million euros, as well as a ban that would prevent the club from competing in European football for the next two years.

The penalty is based on the alleged violation of the club of the Financial Fair Play regulations. According to UEFA, these exist to "introduce greater discipline and rationality in the finances of football clubs." That is, they aim to prevent clubs from incurring serious financial losses, guaranteeing the health of European football.

The association stated that Manchester City has “committed serious violations of the regulations of Fair Play Financial and Licensing of Club UEFA reporting exaggerated sponsorship income in their accounts in the information provided to UEFA between 2012 and 2016”

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Before the news, Pep Guardiola, team coach, said he will appeal UEFA's decision and took the opportunity to answer the president of the Barcelona club, who supported the organization's move: "If you are happy with being sanctioned, I would tell the president of Barcelona to let us appeal. People in Manchester City trust what he has done, so (appeal) is what we are going to do. So don't talk too loudly, Barcelona, "Guardiola told Sky Sports.

The former player also emphasized that he would remain in Manchester City despite the penalty. "If I am not fired – what can happen – I will stay at Manchester City. I want to be here. I said it before and I say it now. I want to help the club stay as long as possible. Why should I go?" The coach told Sky Sports.

Similarly, the official response of the club focused on denying the accusations as well as the need to seek an appeal: "Simply, this is a case initiated by UEFA, processed by UEFA and tried by UEFA. With this process over, the club will seek an impartial trial as quickly as possible and therefore will begin the necessary proceedings before the Court of Sports Arbitration at the first possible opportunity. "

If you don't win your appeal process, Manchester may not be able to participate in this year's Champions League, which would be a shame because they have world-class players like Kevin De Bruyne.

However, this is not the first time that the association of European clubs has dropped the hammer on the exaggerated expenditure of its members. These three teams have also had problems with UEFA.

1. AC Milan

In 2018, Milan received a ban on participating in European football for two years, according to The Guardian. Milan, however, successfully appealed this decision in 2019, only to fall back under the magnifying glass of the regulatory entity for having spent more than 2 billion euros incorporating players to its team between 2015-2017. This time, Milan negotiated a one-year ban while stabilizing its finances that it is currently fulfilling.

2. Malaga

In 2012 this Spanish club received a stiff UEFA sanction in which it was forbidden to participate in the competition for 4 years. The team received at the time a fine of 300,000 euros for debts that had not been paid. Eventually, the club managed to negotiate to reduce its penalty to one year without competing. However, it seems that they never managed to recover from this event, since their position in the league has only declined since that year.

3. KF Skënderbeu Korçë

However, perhaps UEFA's most rigid and impressive decision was the ban on the Albanian football club KF Skënderbeu Korçë. He received a 10-year suspension of European football, as well as a fine of one million euros from the association. This is because UEFA discovered that the club was responsible for a variety of activities they used to fix the matches. Although Skenderbeu appealed the decision in 2018, it was denied by the Sports Arbitration Court.

Other clubs, such as Paris Saint-German and Galatasaray have been under investigation in the same way but have managed to arbitrate with the regulatory body to reduce or eliminate their sanctions.

Hopefully, UEFA can continue its research activities to ensure health and competitiveness in European football.