What I don't fully understand about the financial fair play rules is what would happen if they did indeed get relegated because of legal trouble and then the Manchester City sheikhs would be willing to continue paying all the players those high salaries, would that be allowed or would they break any financial fair play rules if they had to go down in the Championship? I wonder what the baseline is there to determine how much it is allowed to be paid in salaries to all the players.
They will not be able to pay those players from their own pocket, players salaries are paid from revenue generated and they are not going to generate anything near half of what they're currently generating. It's against FFP.
That was my question, but the reason I brought this up is because I read that Barcelona sold all types of licenses and turn so many things into assets from broadcasting rights to stadium names to whatever else they could license and then sell to investors. Would that all count as revenue is what I am wondering. So far these systemically relevant clubs have found solutions that somehow got accepted. The only club that got relegated as a consequence of a penalty was Juventus Turin some time in the past. But I think that was because of corruption and not any financial fair play violations.
The big question is whether the Premier League would go hard on them and relegate one of the most important Premier League teams. Manchester City is a serious figurehead for the Premier League and while I am for fair rules and clubs honoring them, I have my doubts that they don't find a faulty deal where the Premier League and Manchester City get away with a black eye.
I know that Barcelona was so often talked about and how they have more than a billion in debt, but it never had the serious consequences everyone thought it would have. There is so much politics going on behind the scenes, I think this would be the same for Manchester City.