Manchester City’s two-year ban from UEFA competitions could cost the Premier League champions in the region of £250million in lost revenue.
European football’s governing body announced on Friday that City would be fined £25m and barred from the Champions League and the Europa League for the next two seasons, on account of “serious breaches” of Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations between 2012-16.
City have already stated their intention to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for (CAS), meaning a seismic moment for elite club football still has twists and turns to come.
The future of manager Pep Guardiola, along with star players such as Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling, is likely to be the most immediate concern for fans, but the balance sheets that have so fascinated UEFA over recent years are also set to take a considerable hit in the event City observe a Champions League exile.
“If you go deep into the latter stages of the Champions League, you’re looking at around £100m in TV money and prize money,” Dr Dan Plumley – a football finance expert and senior lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University – told Omnisport.
City earned £85.7m on their run to the quarter-finals in 2018-19, with greater riches in prospect if they are able to negotiate a last-16 tie against Real Madrid and go all the way this time around.“Liverpool earned £110m for winning it,” Plumley continued. “So, ballpark, £100m because you’d expect them to progress to the knockout stages at least. That’s times two, so there’s £200m there.”
As well as missing out on UEFA broadcasting revenue and prize money, the modern convention of performance-related clauses being written into sponsorship deals is also likely to hurt City.
“Commercial deals that are in place with things like shirt providers and other partners, a lot of those now have penalty clauses for Champions League qualification for the big teams,” Plumley said.
“If City aren’t competing on that stage there will be a reduction in their contracts for that period of time.“So you’re looking at maybe a conservative estimate in the ballpark of a £250m reduction in revenue from not being in the Champions League over two full seasons.”
