Manchester City To Be Banned From Champions League? Jose Mourinho Thinks They Should Be
Jose Mourinho has had a swipe at Manchester City just a day before his side, Chelsea, face them in the Premier League, by insisting that if they continue to break the financial fair play rule, they should be docked points and stripped of titles.
The Portuguese manager clearly waited until just before the two title rivals came together in order to make his comments so that he could try and get inside the head of his rival, Manuel Pellegrini.
Chelsea are traveling up to Manchester’s Etihad stadium on Sunday for the hugely anticipated clash, which sees two of the favorites for the Premier League title go head to head. He thinks that if clubs continue to overspend by hundreds of millions of dollars, while also winning titles, then they should be punished.
Mourinho believes that this would be a more apt punishment than the squad restrictions and fines that the likes of City, Paris St. Germain, and Zenit have faced this season.
“Everybody knows there are fines and, if these fines exist, control exits. But are fines fair? I don’t think so. In my opinion the first thing is to remove points and remove titles. If you have important capital which allows you to overcome the FFP; if you win titles and then you are fined economically, you keep doing the same thing.”
Mourinho, who made his comments to the Portuguese television station TVI, clearly doesn’t hold any respect for the current rules that are in place. He is adamant that a change to them will mean the clubs who are affected will immediately stand up and take notice.
“They will take from you one or two players from the Champion League list. Then, instead of 24, you go with 22. But if you’re stating that you will start the next Champions League with six points fewer, or you won’t play in the next edition of the Champions League and go into the Europa League instead, it’s more serious.”
Some soccer fans will immediately notice that it’s rather hypocritical of Mourinho to make such remarks. Chelsea, when they were taken over by Roman Abramovich in 2003, were one of the first sides to spend ridiculous amounts of money in a short space of time in order to be able to compete with the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal. But the club now insists they comply with FFP rules, unlike City, Paris Saint Germain, and Zenit St. Petersburg, who were each fined close to $100 million in the summer because of the amount of money they’d spent.
[Image via Total Football Madness]
