NYON: Manchester City are considered appealing against UEFA’s punishment for breaching its Financial Fair Play rules.

City are angry at being ‘paired’ with Paris Saint-Germain and left facing a fine of almost £50m and restrictions on their squads in the Champions League next season.

Owner Sheikh Mansour must decide by tomorrow [FRIDAY] whether to accept the punishment, reluctantly, or contest the punishment at the club financial control body’s adjudicatory chamber.

The risk is that the panel, chaired by the Portuguese judge José Narciso da Cunha Rodrigues, could impose an even harsher punishment up to and including exclusion from next season’s Champions League.

Under the punishment proposed by UEFA, City would receive a fines of €20m per season for the next three years, plus a reduction on their European squad size from 25 to 21 and a freeze on their current wages bill.

Manager Manuel Pellegrini refused to comment, saying: “Nothing is official yet, so there is nothing more to say. When there is official news from UEFA we can analyse what will happen.”

Clubs are allowed losses of €45m over the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons.

City lost £153m over those two seasons but claimed they complied because of permission to ignore the value of contracts signed before 2010 as well as discount investments in youth development and infrastructure.

UEFA, by contrast, is thought to believe that City’s £350m, 10-year deal with Abu Dhabi’s national airline Etihad and a series of licensing deals have been overvalued.

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