Manchester City handed two-year ban on signing academy players

Manchester City have been fined £300.000 and given a two year ban on signing academy players from other English clubs for breaking rules regarding youth recruitment. The sanction follows a similar one received by Liverpool last month.

The embargo applies to players in the Under-10 to Under-18 age range and will block Manchester City from registering academy players who have been registered with other Premier League of EFL clubs in the previous 18 months.

However, as it was the case with Liverpool, the second year of the sanction will be suspended for a three year period and will only be activated in the event of any further similar breach by City.

Liverpool were fined £100,000 and given a two-year ban in April after being found guilty for approaching and "offer of inducements" to a 12-year-old from Stoke City.

Days later The Telegraph reported that the Premier League were also investigating Manchester City for three cases of tapping three young players from Everton, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Liverpool.

Now the publications claims that City have been found guilty of two first cases but cleared of any wrongdoing the case involving 16-year-old goalkeeper Louie Moulden from Liverpool.

A statement from the Premier League read: "The Premier League has sanctioned Manchester City FC for breaches of its Youth Development Rules. The breaches concern approaches to two separate academy players whilst they were each registered with another club.

"Following an investigation, the Premier League found evidence that the club's conduct prior to applying to register the players contravened League rules. This included evidence of contact between the club and members of each academy player's family while those academy players were still registered with their previous clubs."

"Manchester City will pay a fine of £300,000 and will be prohibited from registering any academy players in the under-10 to under-18 age range who have been registered with a Premier League or EFL club in the preceding 18 months. This ban will last for two years. The period of this ban from 30 June 2018 onwards will be suspended for three years to be activated in the event of any similar breach by the club.

"In each case, the academy player was conditionally registered with Manchester City while the Premier League's investigation was ongoing. As a result of the club's breaches, the players' registrations will be terminated on a specified date, with no compensation rights retained by the club, and the club will not be permitted to re-register them as academy players. In addition, Manchester City has offered to pay compensation to each player's previous club, and maintain educational provision for each player until the completion of his GCSEs."