Man City and Chelsea given best case FFP scenario after Man United and Barcelona punishment

Latest FFP news with Chelsea and Manchester City shown a previous punishment handed out to Manchester United and Barcelona that they will be hoping for

Chelsea and Manchester City will be hoping for an FFP punishment similar to the one handed out to Barcelona and Manchester United earlier this year. The topic of Financial Fair Play became a major trend last month when Everton were docked 10 points for breaching Profit and Sustainability Rules which are in place to stop club’s losing a certain amount of money.

Unfortunately for Everton, they were deemed to be in breach of one rule after losing £124.5million which was above the £105million threshold permitted under the PSRs. As such, Everton slid down the table and into the relegation zone, however they have since bounced back by winning their last two games to escape the bottom three ahead of their clash against Chelsea this weekend.

Given Everton’s punishment, questions began being asked of Chelsea and Manchester City who have previously been under the microscope for financial irregularities. Earlier this year, the Blues were fined £8.6million (€10m) for ‘submitting incomplete financial information’ during Roman Abramovich’s reign as owner along with their 2019 transfer embargo after 150 rule breaches involving 69 academy players over several seasons. An investigation is also ongoing surrounding alleged irregular payments around transfers but no charge has yet to arrive.

Meanwhile, in February, Manchester City were charged 115 times for a number of different breaches dating back to 2012. Huge updates on the investigation lobbied against the reigning champions have been scarce just due to the sheer amount of potential breaches, although a trial date has recently been agreed for next Autumn with the Premier League.

With that in mind, an anxious wait faces both Premier League heavyweights although they may be able to take some hope from two FFP punishments dished out earlier this year. In July it was confirmed that Man United had been handed a €300,000 (£257,000) fine for “minor break even deficits” for the financial years spanning between 2019 and 2022.

Alongside this UEFA revealed in a statement that Spanish giants Barcelona were slapped with a €500,000 (£428,000) fine “for wrongly reporting, in the financial year 2022, profits on disposal of intangible assets (other than player transfers) which are not a relevant income under the regulations.”

Given the fact that Everton were adjudged to have only made one breach, their punishment seems harsh, especially with the added context on Man United and Barcelona. Those three punishments handed out in 2023 are all for varying breaches and Man City and Chelsea will certainly be hoping for a similar outcome to the one received by Man United and Barcelona.