Sunday 18 January 2015 19:00, UK
Martin Lipton of The Sun has suggested there has been a "lack of transparency and honesty" in relation to Manchester City's transfer dealings since the confusion over the signing of Frank Lampard.
Since the confirmation that Lampard will play for the Premier League champions until the end of the season, they have signed Wilfred Bony from Swansea in a deal said to be worth more than £25million.
After signing Bony, questions have been asked about the transparency of Manchester City's financial dealings and whether they are breaking the rules.
Speaking on Sunday Supplement Lipton said: "They - City - told us last year that they would meet the Financial Fair Play provisions, then they got fined $50m by UEFA for not meeting FFP provisions.
"There are big questions over the whole structure, because of this City football group entity which runs Manchester City, New York City FC and Melbourne City FC."
Confusion
The signing of Lampard was originally defined as a loan deal until January when he would move to NYC FC, before the club confirmed on January 1 that the 36-year-old would remain in England until the end of the season.
Lipton added: "People are going to question the structure and if it’s a way of getting around the financial rules, because of the lack of transparency and the lack of honesty. Man City deliberately or otherwise, in the words of MLS commissioner Don Garber, ‘mischaracterised the status of the Lampard deal’.
"For City to say it’s an error is all well and good. This is an error that was perpetuated for five months. City will say it’s a loan. But was never a loan."
Partick Barclay agreed, suggesting that recent events could have repercussions for the club.
Barclay said: "It is very very bad news for City. They’ve done a lot of very very good things. The Lampard issue has destroyed a lot of that. Signing Bony will be in danger of getting them back into trouble with FFP only if they don’t sell Edin Dzeko or Stevan Jovetic.
"Whether Alvaro Negredo - who is on loan at Valencia - will leave this month is very unclear."
Negredo’s loan move to Valencia is expected to become permanent in the summer, while Matija Nastasic has joined Schalke on an intial loan with the view to a permanent deal.
