Manchester City host Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday at the Etihad Stadium in their second Champions League group match, a fixture that carries an ironic resonance given both clubs' past brushes with European financial rules. The game will be the first home match for Enzo Maresca's side since an independent commission upheld 114 of 115 charges brought by the Premier League over City's breaches of the competition's financial rules. City are appealing the decision and have maintained their innocence while they and the rest of the league await news of any sanction.
The match follows Sunday's away game at Liverpool, where home fans protested against Maresca's team before and during the match. City responded on the pitch, winning 3-0 at Anfield behind a strong performance from Erling Haaland and his teammates. Home supporters are expected to back the club and ownership again on Wednesday, and they will be joined by former manager Pep Guardiola, who returns to the Etihad for the first time since leaving the club last summer, when he was succeeded by Maresca.
Earlier this month, Guardiola posted on social media expressing his continued support for Manchester City, its owner, chairman, manager Maresca and the club's supporters, saying the club would get through the situation together and that he loved the fans.
Guardiola managed Manchester City from 2016 to 2026, winning the club's first Champions League title in 2023. Following the commission's verdict, questions have emerged over whether City could be stripped of that European crown, with speculation also mounting about the possible loss of domestic honors, including Premier League titles. As things stand, however, there is no indication that City's 2023 European title is under threat.
What happens to the 2023 title?
The independent commission determined that between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons, City breached Premier League spending limits, had what the commission described as "sham" contracts, misstated their accounts and took other steps to make their revenue appear in line with spending limits. UEFA has not opened a new procedure against Manchester City following these developments, though sources told Sky Sports UK that UEFA is monitoring developments and will wait until the end of the Premier League's disciplinary process before deciding whether to take any action.
Among the breaches found were five charges of failing to comply with UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules, which at the time required clubs to operate within break-even limits tied to football-related revenue. UEFA has previously sanctioned City over FFP breaches. In 2014, City entered a settlement agreement with UEFA that included a $60 million fine, with €40 million to be returned if the club stuck to the settlement's terms. In 2020, City were again found to have broken FFP rules and were fined $30 million and banned from European competition for two years. City appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled that UEFA had not established that City's owners disguised equity funding as sponsorship contributions. CAS reduced the fine to $10 million for failing to cooperate with the UEFA investigation, stating that the alleged breaches were either not established or time-barred, and the European ban did not stand.
UEFA operates under a five-year statute of limitations for financial rule breaches, while the Premier League does not. That distinction is why it remains too early to say whether UEFA could impose sanctions in the future, and why City's 2023 Champions League title should not currently be considered in doubt.
The surreal scenario
Technically, Manchester City could play in the second division domestically and in the Champions League next season if they were relegated from the Premier League. According to the BBC, City's current situation should not affect their UEFA licence, which clubs need to compete in European competitions. UEFA could still launch disciplinary proceedings in the future, but that alone would not necessarily put the licence at risk. A source told the BBC that the question of City's licence had been raised and that a solution would require the sort of joined-up thinking that has been lacking so far.
Licences are issued by the Football Association, with the process delegated to the Premier League, and are based on a club's current financial books rather than past sanctions or breaches. That is why, in the event of relegation, Manchester City could potentially still play European football.
Why can't City appeal to CAS now?
The Court of Arbitration for Sport, which handles roughly 900 cases a year across more than 50 sports from its base in Switzerland, cannot take up City's case at this stage. City already appealed to CAS in 2020 and partially won, with CAS overturning UEFA's two-year European ban. Under English law, the agreement among Premier League clubs states that cases involving English clubs are conducted in England and Wales, meaning the Swiss-based body has no jurisdiction here.
How PSG handled it
PSG, City's opponents on Wednesday, faced similar issues with UEFA in the past. The matter traces back to 2018, when German magazine Der Spiegel published the "Football Leaks" documents, which claimed Qatar and Abu Dhabi had together injected $5.1 billion into the budgets of the clubs they own. Those documents reported that PSG had agreed a five-year deal with the Qatar Tourism Authority worth €1.075 billion, or €215 million a year, alongside what were described as overestimated sponsorship deals involving Manchester City's Abu Dhabi owners. Both clubs signed settlement agreements with UEFA, and PSG were fined €10 million in 2022 for failing to comply with financial rules since 2018, with a further €50 million fine suspended.
The 2018 Football Leaks documents also alleged that current FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who was UEFA's general secretary at the time, played a key role in helping both clubs avoid serious sanctions in 2014, personally meeting with officials from both clubs for what was described as secret talks, even supplying them with confidential materials involving suggested compromises he was not authorized to propose.
Nasser Al-Khelaifi, president of Qatar-owned PSG since 2011, now heads the European Club Association, a role he took on in 2021 after Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli stepped down amid the fallout from the European Super League project he had helped launch earlier that year. PSG now find themselves in a different position from Manchester City, partly because France's Ligue 1 did not take the same approach as the Premier League. The two sides meet at the Etihad on Wednesday in what promises to be one of the week's standout fixtures, with the political and behind-the-scenes battles that have shaped European football over the past decade forming an important backdrop to the match.
