After a leaked new tranche of emails by German magazine, Der Spiegel, Manchester City is facing a Champions League ban.
The emails’ messages provide more detail of how City allegedly circumnavigated UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules.
The Premier League champions also look as though they are facing another FA inquiry, after it was alleged that they misled the FA over the third-party ownership of a player, Bruno Zuculini.
But the most serious outcome for City would be a Champions League ban, which would affect their ability to recruit players and to balance their books without additional funding from their owner, Sheik Mansour, which is not allowed by UEFA rules.
City are already being investigated by UEFA, after leaked emails last November appeared to show how they used direct funding from Abu Dhabi United Group, the investment fund owned by Sheik Mansour to supplement sponsorship deals.
UEFA’s rules place a strict limit on the cash an owner can inject directly into a club to prevent over-inflation in the football market.
