Liverpool ‘lead push’ for Man City ‘crackdown’ as they demand FFP verdict; £80m reveal
Liverpool are at the forefront of the push to get Manchester City’s financial fair play case resolved by the Premier League, according to reports.
Man City are back under the spotlight again after fellow Premier League side Everton were deducted ten points last week after being found to have “taken chances” with the Premier League’s financial rules.
An independent commission found the club’s desire to improve their on-pitch performance had resulted in them acting “irresponsibly” and exceeding permitted losses under the league’s profitability and sustainability rules.
The points deduction drops Everton to 19th in the table and leaves major question marks over whether a sale of the club by current owner Farhad Moshiri to an American investment firm, 777 Partners, will proceed.
Man City have 115 alleged breaches of the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules to worry about. The Citizens were hit wih an unprecedented array of charges relating to a period between 2009 and 2018, with potential punishments if the club is found guilty ranging from fines to relegation.
Many fans of other clubs are wondering why it is taking so long to come to a conclusion on the charges brought against Man City after Everton were punished last week.
READ MORE: Man City and FFP: Rules are rules even if those rules are nonsense
And Football Insider insists that rivals Liverpool are ‘leading the push for the Premier League to resolve Man City’s financial fair play case’ as they call for a ‘swift crackdown’.
Liverpool have challenged Man City for the Premier League title on three occasions over the last five years with the Reds comfortably beating the Citizens to the trophy in the 2019/20 campaign.
And as one of their biggest rivals Liverpool ‘are applying pressure to the Premier League to resolve their investigation on last season’s treble winners’.
The report adds: ‘Liverpool ideally want a verdict to be reached before the start of the 2024/25 season.’
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire insists that Man City won’t be worried by breaking the record for the highest wage bill recorded by a Premier League side in the 2022/23 season.
With Maguire insisting that the defending Premier League champions could’ve spent another £70m-80m on wages and still within UEFA’s recommended limit.
“City will be perfectly relaxed when it comes to their wage bill,” Maguire told Football Insider. “The important figure is how much they are paying out in wages as a proportion of revenue, and that only went from 58 to 59 percent.
“They are still well below Uefa’s target of 70 percent. So they could have spent another £70 or £80 million in wages and still have been within the limit.
“So City will be relatively relaxed. A lot of those wages came from bonuses achieved through the club’s treble success.
“They have a highly incentivized pay structure at City where everybody benefits in a good year and everybody suffers in a non-good year.
“Based on my calculations, the average weekly wage at City was £25,000 per week when Sheikh Mansour arrived and last season it was £196,000 per week which is spectacular – this is absolutely amazing.”