Financial Fair Play?, designed to protect the European Elite Clubs like Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona etc. It has nothing to do with creating a level playing field, nor does it have anything to do with saving clubs from financial hardship. Lets say there was a club in the Europa League, who is suffering with huge debt and they've just broken Uefa's FFP rules. Ask yourself what Uefa would then do to that club, they certainly wouldn't be helping them now would they? NO, Uefa would fine that club and maybe even kick them out of European football altogether resulting in the club being in even more trouble.
The truth is they have allowed clubs like Man United to compete in Europe for over two decades, while mounting significant debt to keep them in Europe. Now how is it fair to bring about new rules, after you've allowed other clubs to get away with breaking those rules for decades?
Manchester City FC really do have nothing to worry about, the only reason we have accepted the sanctions are because City want to keep Uefa sweet. The sanctions themselves pose very little threat, but some would have you believe otherwise.
Before I start remember this, Manchester City FC will break even as of May 31st 2014.
Manchester City have received a sanction of a 60 million Euro fine, 40 million of which is suspended. City will have to forfeit 10 million Euros from any profit when competing in the 2013/14 Champions League campaign, and a further 10 million Euros forfeited in the 2014/15 Champions League campaign.
The next sanction is acceptable loss, Manchester City will only be allowed to make losses of 20 million Euros in 2013/14 and 10 million Euros in 2014/15. The reality is we will more than likely exceed breaking even from 2014 onwards, so it's highly unlikely to be a big deal.
As long as Manchester City achieve the break even limits imposed above, as well as stick to the transfer limit imposed which I'm about to cover below, Uefa will reduce the 60 million Euro fine to 20 million Euros thus wiping the 40 million Euros suspended.
Now you're all asking 'but what about the next transfer window, will City still be able to strengthen without any problems? My answer is Yes, we will be able to strengthen our squad in 2013/14. Manchester City have been imposed the limit of £49 million in 2013/14, Manchester City have no need to spend large amounts of money any more, we will capture the players we need for the next campaign and push on.
We will see two or more home grown talents promoted to the first team in 2014, which will put us in a healthier position. More than likely to be Emyr Huws, Marcos Lopes and Jordy Hiwula, all three have impressed over recent seasons and are now knocking on the first team changing room.
The last sanction is the player limit for the 2013/14 Champions League, Uefa have limited us to 21 players, 8 of whom have to be home grown. That would be Joe Hart, James Milner, Marcos Lopes, John Guidetti, Dredryk Boyata, (Gael Clichy as someone kindly pointed out), Emyr Huws and Jordy Hiwula, that is unless any of them are sold, in which case there is more talent in our academy as back up. Not to mention any profit made from the sale of Joleon Lescott or any other outgoing player, Micah Richards also on his way out.
2014/15 will see that limit lifted back to 25 players for European football, to be honest we only registered 23 players for the 2012/13 Champions League campaign anyway, in fact we only took 21 players due to injuries so no big deal.
