UEFA had also accused the Citizens of refusing to cooperate in the investigation to which Soriano said that City had cooperated with the investigation process
Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano (Photo: AFP) and Manchester City (Photo: Twitter/@ManCity).
Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano has said that the breaches of UEFA’s club licensing and financial fair play regulations are “simply not true”.
Notably, Premier League giants City have been barred from competing in European club soccer competitions for the next two seasons and fined 30 million euros ($32.5 million) by European soccer’s governing body UEFA after being found guilty of “serious breaches” of its financial fair play rules.
“The most important thing I have to say today is that the allegations are not true, they’re simply not true,” Soriano said in a statement as quoted by IANS.
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“The owner has not put money in this club that has not been properly declared.
“We are a sustainable football club, we are profitable, we don’t have debt, our accounts have been scrutinised many times by auditors, by regulators, by investors and this is perfectly clear,” he added.
UEFA had also accused the Citizens of refusing to cooperate in the investigation to which Soriano said that City had cooperated with the investigation process and offered “irrefutable evidence that the claims are not true”.
The European soccer’s governing body had launched an investigation after German newspaper Der Spiegel published leaked documents in November 2018 alleging Man City had inflated the value of a sponsorship deal, misleading European football’s governing body.
According to reports, it was alleged that City — who have always denied wrongdoing — deliberately misled UEFA so they could meet the FFP rules requiring clubs to break even.
City were fined 49 million euros in 2014 for a previous breach of regulations. The Citizens face Real Madrid next week in the first leg of their round of 16 clash in the Champions League, European soccer’s premier annual club competition.
(With inputs from IANS)
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