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Tuesday Kickoff: Man City, PSG face FFP punishments; Chivas target six signings; and more

SamirNasriManCity1-SunderlandLeagueCupFinal2014 (Getty)

By DAN KARELL

Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain may not miss out on European competition next season, but that doesn’t mean UEFA won’t throw down the hammer at two of Europe’s biggest clubs.

According to a number of reports in England and France, both Man City and PSG are in line to receive harsh financial punishments from UEFA for breaching Financial Fair Play rules. UEFA are expected to make their announcements public next week, but president Michel Platini ruled out European bans in an interview last week.

The reports state that UEFA are offering settlements, or in essence a plea agreement, and it’s up to the clubs to accept them or to take the full punishment. A report in Le Parisien states that PSG will have to pay a fine in the “tens of millions of Euros” and will have another 12 months to get their financial books in line so they aren’t operating on a massive deficit.

Under FFP, clubs aren’t allowed to post losses of more than £37/€45 million over the last two seasons, and Man City have posted losses of nearly £149 million in that time span. PSG is also under investigation for a deal with the Qatar Tourism Authority that seems to be well above market value.

Here are some more stories to start off your Tuesday:

CHIVAS TO MAKE SIX SIGNINGS THIS SUMMER

Chivas Guadalajara’s dreadful season has come to a close, but the club are now planning on improving the squad in a big way.

With owner Jorge Vergara fully focused on the club after selling his stake in Chivas USA, he’s reportedly put down enough money for Chivas to bring in six new players this summer, according to sporting director Francisco “Paco” Palencia.

“We already have six planned signings,” Palencia told Univision. “The coaching staff met today and I will meet with them tomorrow. We will give so much more (to the team).”

Chivas finished in 15th position in the 2014 Clausura season with 21 points, but could have made the Liguilla (playoffs) had they beaten Monterrey on the final day of the regular season. Chivas

SEEDORF COULD BE REPLACED WITH INZAGHI

Reports in Italy are intensifying that Clarence Seedorf’s time as AC Milan manager could be over at the end of the season.

Milan fell, 2-0, to AS Roma last Friday and are still fighting to qualify for Europe next season. According to the Gazzetta Dello Sport, Milan CEO Adriano Galliani has reportedly made up his mind that Seedorf won’t take the club forward, and Galliani is already warming up to the idea of Seedorf’s former Milan teammate Filippo Inzaghi taking over as head coach for next season.

Milan are currently just one point outside the last Europa League qualification spot but face Inter Milan, Atalanta, and Sassuolo in their final three matches of the season.

QUICK KICKS

Manchester United midfielder Adnan Januzaj will be on Belgium’s preliminary World Cup roster but still has to prove that he can make the 23-man squad for the tournament this summer. (REPORT)

Even though he’s not 100 percent fit, Gonzalo Higuain is still hoping to feature for Napoli in the Coppa Italia final this Sunday against Fiorentina. (REPORT)

Luca Toni’s stellar season with Hellas Verona has earned him a new two-year contract. (REPORT)

One section of Inter Milan’s ultras has been closed for the next two games by the sporting courts in Italy due to discriminatory chanting. (REPORT)

Former Scottish giants Rangers could go into administration for the second time in three years if they don’t make enough season-ticket revenue. (REPORT)

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What do you think of these reports? Do you see Man City and PSG paying huge fines? Do you see Chivas being able to bring in six top quality players? Do you think that Inzaghi can lead Milan back to the Serie A summit?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. What a joke with the fines. Way to go UEFA, enforce your fair play rules by letting PSG and Man City buy themselves out of trouble. That’ll do the trick.

    Reply
      • I think Vik has it right. By imposing a stiff financial penalty, though one that each club can easily afford due to their deep pocketed owners, UEFA gets to fill their coffers with petro-dollars that way. Then by not banning them from competitions, they keep two of the bigger teams in play meaning there is likely TV revenue and gate receipts that they can dip into as well…

      • How is a team winning at all cost constitute “cheating”. As a neutral fan of European soccer I don’t really care if a team turns a profit or not. The more money in the game the better, it goes to the players and trickles down to smaller clubs who grow and develop players that can later be sold to richer clubs. Before we know it there will be salary caps and luxury taxes and the beauty of watching Ronaldo and Bale on the field at the same time will be gone.

      • The game doesn’t survive on the support of neutral fans though, and when your team can’t compete because Saudi Billionaire (X) decided he’d rather have a team in France or whatever, it kind of sucks. Think about being a Valencia supporter. You went from winning the league and making CL finals to struggling to make Europe and having to sell off your best players (seriously, think about the talent they’ve offloaded for a minute. David Villa, David Silva, Pablo Hernandez, Roberto Soldado, Juan Mata) just to survive. All the while you have to watch while Real Madrid and Barcelona do all sorts of shady backroom stuff to bring in you CR7s and Neymars and Bales and Fabregases (and all the trophies).

      • I was referring to “cheating” within the context of the Financial Fair Play rules. Obviously a broader definition of the word doesn’t necessarily apply.

  2. Milan are in such shambles. They appointed Seedorf thinking that this was going to be a long-term thing. He prematurely cuts short his playing career to manage his dream team. His record means that, had he been in charge since the beginning of the season, Milan would be in 4th place. Now Galliani is going to blow it up and start over.

    Don’t really know why I’m complaining because I can’t stand Milan. Maybe because Seedorf deserves better than this.

    Reply
    • Very true. Seedorf did not deserve this sort of treatment from Milan management. This team overachieved a bit last year to even make the CL this year. He took over a team in shambles, if you took their points since he took and extrapolated to the whole year they’d be in 4th place. I’m also not sure how Inzaghi is a better option at all.

      Reply
    • +1, seems now that seedorf was intended to be the fall-guy, so they’d have time to hire the next ‘real’ manager over the summer. he’s just turned out to be better than they expected.

      Reply
  3. If you have an owner with essentially infinite resources, then even a hefty fine for violating FFP rules is really no penalty at all.

    Reply
    • +1, was going to say the same thing. The only real punishment to these ridiculously deep pocketed clubs is to ban them from competitions, which was never going to happen. A fine, even if its tens of millions, won’t discourage them from anything.

      Reply
      • Oh I know perfectly well why UEFA is doing it, it just is not really what originally described if I remember correctly. Its basically just a luxury tax now, like MLB does.

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