Manchester City representative travelled to India despite club being found guilty of FFP breaches: Report

Representative Image: Manchester City is accused of providing misleading information about its finances over a nine-year period from 2009-18. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

A Manchester City representative was invited on a UK government-backed trade delegation to India despite the club being found guilty of 114 breaches of Premier League rules, according to a report by The Guardianon Wednesday.

The representative reportedly travelled from the United Kingdom to Delhi and Mumbai on a trip organised by the UK’s business secretary Jonathan Reynolds.

Greater Manchester’s mayor Bev Craig defended the decision to invite City even as Prime Minister Andy Burnham came under fire for his own contacts with the club.

“If a football club has broken the rules, a football club should be punished for breaking the rules, and that is pretty clear in an independent process,” she said.

“I think what can also be true at the same time, though, if you ask residents in east Manchester, have they benefited from a new library, a new leisure centre, a new sixth-form college, infrastructure investment, the job opportunities that come from them being a good employment charter signee and an early adopter of the real living wage – then they will have felt that benefit.”

City is yet to comment on the issue.

An independent panel had found that United Arab Emirates-backed City had artificially inflated its revenue by more than USD 1 billion over nearly a decade, circumventing fair-play rules. Football regulator chair David Kogan said it was still awaiting the outcome of City’s appeal against the verdict.

The UAE is a big investor in the U.K. Asked about the regulator’s ability to remain independent given wider relations between the governments, Kogan said: “Any form of political interference in the way we operate is going to result in my resigning from this role, and I stand by that completely.”

“We’ve come under absolutely no political pressure whatsoever on this or any other topic. And I don’t expect to in the future,” he said.

City is accused of providing misleading information about its finances over a nine-year period from 2009-18.

During that time, it won three titles and signed some of the world’s best players. It went on to enjoy a period of unprecedented dominance of English football.

The guilty verdict represents the biggest scandal in Premier League history and raises questions over the future of the club, which is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family.