Big-spending Man City vow to comply with UEFA rules

Manchester City have vowed to comply with UEFA’s new financial fair-play rules despite lavish investment of more than 500 million dollars in only two years, it was reported Tuesday.

City officials said the club have no intention of breaking regulations set to be introduced next season, which will bar any club from making an aggregate loss of more than 45 million euros over the three seasons from 2011-2012.

Failure to comply with the rules could see clubs excluded from UEFA competitions such as the Champions League and Europa League.

Earlier this month City announced losses of 121 million pounds for the 12 months up to May 31 2010, up from 92.5 million pounds the previous year.

Those figures came after City went on a record spree in the transfer market in a bid to assemble a squad capable of challenging for trophies.

City chief executive Garry Cook however told the Guardian however that he did not expect the club to show the same level of “intensity” in the forthcoming transfer windows.

“Clearly our intention is to comply,” he told the paper.

“Our two-year plan was to take a budget and build a competency to compete at the highest level, not forgetting the need for succession planning in every position.

“We are pleased with how that worked, and will not be signing players to the same level of intensity in the next transfer windows.

“Financial fair play is on our conscience. We talk about it at every board meeting, and it’s part of our long-term plan.”

Cook also brushed off critics of the club’s eye-popping summer spending spree where more than 100 million pounds was spent on bolstering Roberto Mancini’s squad with the likes of David Silva, James Milner, Mario Balotelli, Yaya Toure and Jerome Boateng.

“Critics only have their own perspective. They’re not at the football club,” Cook said. “They haven’t been part of the planning or the long-term financial strategies.

“People think we choose players from the fantasy football league but there was a clear plan for who Roberto wanted to sign.”

Since taking over City in 2008, Abu Dhabi-based owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan has spent more than half a billion dollars, the Guardian reported. That includes the September 30 purchase of 37,547,169 new shares in the club which amounted to 79.6 million pounds of fresh investment.