Manchester City copped their UEFA ban from Europe for falsely inflating the value of sponsorship deals to meet Financial Fair Play regulations, it has been claimed.
Although UEFA have not disclosed specific details about the deals that constituted the breaches, it is understood several sponsorship arrangements were found to have fallen foul of FFP, says the Mirror.
Nine clubs were found to have breached the FFP criteria in the first assessment period in 2011, most notably City and Paris Saint-Germain.
City were fined £49m, £32m of which was suspended, had spending restrictions imposed and could only name a 21-man Champions League squad for 2014-15.
They had posted combined losses of £149m for the first two seasons under FFP - £97m in 2012 and £51.6m in 2013 - but not enough of their costs could be attributed to a new training complex and youth development investment, which led to their punishment.
On Friday night, the reigning Premier League champions were left stunned after UEFA hit them with a two-year ban from the Champions League.
City were also fined £25million by European football's governing body after “serious" breaches of Financial Fair Play regulations.
