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'They thought they could take on the rules' | Rob Harris on Man City's officials

Man City's two-year ban from the Champions League is indicative of an incredibly fraught relation...



'They thought they could take...
Soccer

'They thought they could take on the rules' | Rob Harris on Man City's officials

Man City's two-year ban from the Champions League is indicative of an incredibly fraught relationship between the club and Uefa, according to journalist Rob Harris.

Harris, who has been covering the story for the Associated Press, joined Monday's Football Show to discuss the situation between City and European football's governing body and how the Manchester club found itself subject to a two-year Champions League ban.

While the ban and €30 million fine are for financial fair play breaches, the arrogance with which Man City's officials have treated Uefa has also served against them, according to Harris.

"A lot of this is about how the club acted: the conduct of the officials. Of course, many of the officials are still in place."

One particularly jarring example, Harris noted, was the leaked correspondence published by Der Spiegel which showed the City Football Group's lawyer Simon Cliff writing "1 down, 6 to go" to a colleague following the death of UEFA's lead FFP investigator Jean Luc-Dehaene.

"The officials, we have seen from internal correspondence, were celebrating the death of one of the Uefa investigators and sort of basically saying they could do what they liked with Uefa, [that] they would spend millions on lawyers to put up against them.

"So this certainly showed City's belief that they could take on the rules," Harris commented.

Another example of City's approach which has been problematic was their failure to ever outline an argument against Financial Fair Play or the club's issues with it: "You struggle to find anywhere a clear articulation from Manchester City with their views against it."

"There is no Manchester City public position of: 'This is what we think is wrong with their Financial Fair Play. This is what we think should change about it,'" Harris added.

"Manchester City probably hoped that all of this might fade away. Their initial position was not commenting but it just picked up steam as more and more information came out through November 2018 and we got more of a sense of where the Uefa investigation would hold as well."

You can watch Harris' full break down of Manchester City's Uefa troubles here.

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