Financial fair play was often criticised for doing nothing and just widening the gap between the richest clubs and everyone else, but this could be a landmark ruling.
Man City have spent an awful lot of money to transform themselves from a yo-yo club to Premier League champions, so it was obvious that something wasn’t right in a financial sense.
The big issue with FFP was it just felt like the big clubs were being fined when they breached rules – something that wouldn’t hurt a club who have wealthy backers.
That’s all changed, after the news came out that City have been banned from the Champions League for two years and hit with a €30m fine:
Uefa announce Man City banned from next two seasons of the Champions League and fined 30 million euros pic.twitter.com/yUku5PMGZ4
— tariq panja (@tariqpanja) February 14, 2020
You could be cynical and say this is an easy target for UEFA because City don’t have a massive following and it shouldn’t hurt their revenues too much if they miss out, so it would be fascinating to see what happens if a true mega club were to fall foul of the same rules.
This could also have a big knock on effect in the league. City have an ageing squad and potential replacements may be put off by the lack of European action, Man United might even get into the competition if it filters down to the 5th place team.
You also have to wonder if Pep Guardiola might walk after this too.