Kieran Maguire: Man City ready for legal battle amid new FFP probe – ‘it’s quite clear’
Man City have no reason to use backdoor payment loopholes and are therefore ready for any legal challenges that may come their way in light of recent allegations.
That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the latest developments in a potential Financial Fair Play controversy.
Per The Sun last Saturday (9 July), a leading Premier League club is being probed by the FA and HMRC for making offshore payments to agents.
The club in question used overseas sister teams to disguise 16 payments in total and thereby dodge FFP, it is claimed.
While there is no evidence the two claims are connected, City were accused of similar offences by La Liga president Javier Tebas in June.
City are one of only three teams in the Premier League to operate within a multi-club network – the others being comparative minnows Brentford and Brighton.
The 2021-22 Premier League champions have also previously been accused of making backdoor payments to former manager Roberto Mancini.
But Maguire insists that City will not be concerned by the latest allegations against the unnamed club.
“Man City will probably just brush this off,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“There have been lots of snipes at the club historically and they have usually been successful in defending the club’s position.
“They have a very large wage budget. It was £355m in 2020-21, the highest in the Premier League by over £20m.
“Their average wage is £164,000 per week. Therefore, I don’t think there is any need for them to be involved in something like this.
“It’s quite clear that they are already rewarding players very handsomely incentivised wages structure that delivers for the talent if the talent delivers trophies.”
In other news, pundit claims this may be the real reason Raheem Sterling forced out of Man City amid “shock” claim.