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Schalke have confirmed the loan signing of Manchester City defender Matija Nastasic until the end of the season. His only appearance for City this season came in the curtain-raising 3-0 Community Shield defeat to Arsenal, where he partnered Dedryck Boyata at the back in the absence of Vincent Kompany and Martin Demichelis.
DSSC GO TO TOWN ON CITY GROUP
After Frank Lampard debacle, are these just more mistakes from Manchester City? UEFA probe accuracy of their club accounts
Manchester City forced to admit they misled fans over Frank Lampard
UEFA are now scrutinising their accounts to to see if they've been mislead
Club were found guilty of breaching Financial Fair Play rules last season
Manchester City, reeling after being forced to admit they and their sister club in New York misled fans on both sides of the Atlantic over Frank Lampard, are having their financial accounts scrutinised by UEFA to assess whether an attempt has been made to mislead the European governing body over the full extent of the club’s financial losses in 2013-14.
The DSSC on Sunday can reveal UEFA are examining whether the creation of a set of subsidiary companies by City’s ‘parent’ company, City Football Group (CFG), allowed City to under-report the club’s losses for 2013-14.
Two particular subsidiary companies alone had costs, including wages, of £36.7million in the year to the end of May 2014, and posted combined losses of £25.9m in that period. Most of their business was done effectively on behalf of Manchester City FC in that period.
COMPANIES UNDER SPOTLIGHT...
CITY FOOTBALL GROUP (CFG)
Parent company to Man City, New York City, Melbourne Heart, Yokohama Marinos, Man City Women, City Football Marketing and City Football Services (among others). Turnover to end of May 2014: £347m. Operating expenses: £407m (including wages £228m).
Loss: £63m
MAN CITY FC
Turnover to end of May 2014: £346.5m. Operating
expenses: £366m (including wages £205m).
Loss: £23m.
CITY FOOTBALL MARKETING LTD
Turnover to end of May 2014: £6.4m. Operating expenses: £19.2m (including wages £5.5m).
Loss: £12.8m.
CITY FOOTBALL SERVICES LTD
Turnover to end of May 2014: £4.5m. Operating expenses: £17.6m (including wages £7.7m).
Loss: £13.1m.
City’s club accounts for 2013-14, revealed last month, showed City had halved their own losses from a year earlier to post an annual deficit of ‘only’ £23m.
But UEFA could judge City’s accounts should more accurately have included more of the subsidiary companies’ losses, in which case City would be in danger of breaching UEFA’s FFP regulations for a second year running.
UEFA have confirmed checks are being made ‘of all relevant accounts and related-party activities as part of [the] Financial Fair Play (FFP) investigations’.
For breaching FFP rules the first time, City were hit with a £49m fine (two-thirds of it suspended), have a reduced 21-man squad for this season’s Champions League and had a spending limit imposed on summer and January transfer activity.
City have strenuously insisted throughout that they have done nothing wrong, their accounts are in order and that they expect to pass all FFP requirements. City sources say they will co-operate fully with any UEFA inquiry.
The rule breach last time stemmed from sales of ‘intellectual property’ by City to two companies owned by CFG in deals that UEFA ruled artificially inflated City’s income in 2012-13. When the deals were not allowed, City’s losses without them meant a breach of FFP.
The DSSC on Sunday can reveal the same two subsidiaries are involved in the new scrutiny.
One is City Football Marketing Limited (CFML), self-described in their own financial accounts as providers of ‘commercial and marketing services to professional sports clubs and organising bodies’. Their main client in 2013-14 was Manchester City FC. Their minor clients were City’s sister clubs in New York and Melbourne.
The other relevant subsidiary to UEFA’s probe is City Football Services Limited (CFSL), described in their own accounts as providing ‘scouting services, performance analysis and other sporting advice to professional sports clubs and organising bodies’.
Their main client in 2013-14 was Manchester City FC. Their minor client was City’s sister club in New York, NYCFC.
Although MCFC in Manchester paid a total £10.1m combined to CFML and CFSL in 2013-14 for ‘services’, the key issue will be how much of the smaller firms’ costs of £36.7m were incurred on MCFC business.
One of the quirks of City’s accounts for 2013-14 was that they apparently shed 135 staff in a year but, in fact, most of them simply became employees of the subsidiaries.
UEFA will ask City and parent company GFG to clarify details of various company accounts in the group. Certainly there appear to be some errors, inadvertent or not.
One example is MCFC reporting a different value for intellectual property sold to CFML, whose own accounts have a slightly smaller value on what they paid MCFC for the same item.
Another example is CFG and MCFC’s accounts both saying former midfielder Javi Garcia was sold last summer to Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine, whereas in fact he was sold to Zenit St Petersburg in Russia — notwithstanding a strange move that has remained hitherto secret.
The most logical explanation for these anomalies and others, City sources say, is simple mistakes, also cited by the club on Friday as the reason for multiple misleading statements on Lampard.
City’s various entities were forced into an embarrassing admission that Lampard had never signed for NYCFC, as claimed last summer, when that occasion was used to sell season tickets and shirts; nor that he had ever been on loan at City.
Even in ‘clarifying’ the situation, City at first claimed Lampard had had a contract at City only until December. Under pressure from the Premier League, they then confirmed he signed ‘permanently’ last summer on a year’s deal.
The Lampard episode has caused outrage in the US among NYCFC’s fans, many of whom feel duped.
More worrying for City’s owner Sheik Mansour, it has damaged the credibility of City and NYCFC — his flagship sports ventures — and called into question the integrity of his whole organisation.
There is no specific timeframe to when City might discover whether they are in the clear over the latest accounts.
A UEFA spokesman told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Manchester City, like all clubs which have signed settlement agreements [after breaching FFP previously], are subject to ongoing monitoring, and any case of non-compliance with the terms of their agreement will be automatically referred to the Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) Adjudicatory Chamber as per Article 15 (4) of the Procedural Rules governing the CFCB.
‘UEFA undertakes thorough checks of all relevant accounts and related-party activities as part of its Financial Fair Play investigations.’
Pellegrini hoping for Milner deal 'in the next few days'
The Manchester City midfielder is yet to agree on a new deal but his manager believes it is not far away.
Manuel Pellegrini says he is delighted to have ‘dangerous’ striker Sergio Aguero back in action as his side look to recover from Saturday’s slip-up against Everton.
And the City boss has revealed that James Milner could be set to hand him a double boost by ending his long-running contract wrangle in the coming days.
Milner, whose current deal expires in the summer, is believed to be on the radar of Liverpool ahead of a potential free transfer.
But Pellegrini remains calm about the issue and said: “I hope that James will stay here and he will sign his contract in the next few days.”
The Blues suffered a minor setback in their pursuit of the Premier League title at the weekend as Steven Naismith’s late equaliser saw them held to a 1-1 draw at Goodison Park.
But their long-term prospects of retaining the crown were undoubtedly aided by the return of Aguero after a lengthy absence through injury.
The Argentine featured for the first time since December 6 as he emerged from the substitutes’ bench to replace Stevan Jovetic.
And Pellegrini believes the 26-year-old can help his side capitalise on the sort of dominance they enjoyed during a goalless first half.
Though he remains pleased with the way City have coped in the absence of their first-choice centre-forward and refused to accept that Roberto Martinez’s side would have been defeated had he started.
The Chilean said: “We played really well and we created the chances, the chances we missed was our problem.
“Of course with Kun and Edin Dzeko the team will improve its performance, but without them we score every game three or more goals in the last four games?
“I think Kun’s presence is important because he can always make a difference.
“He can train now for the whole week, so I am sure he will return to his performance levels in the coming days, and he is a very dangerous striker.
“I think you always need good players. We need Yaya, Edin, Kun, we always need them because they have quality, and you ask the manager, he would think to have all the players to choose from all of them to have his starting XI.
“But I repeat, we have to pick the players who were available, and we created the chances but didn’t score.
“You don’t know if Kun would score – maybe yes, but you don’t know.
“We finished very bad, but we were very impressive in the rest of our play. It was very important to hold the
possession of the ball against a team like Everton who always like to hold the ball too.
“With the possession, I think we create a lot of clear chances, and a lot more moments that were not so clear. We showed we had a lot of confidence in our play.”
City started the day neck-and-neck with Chelsea at the summit of the Premier League, with the sides level on points, goals scored and goals against.
But the disappointment of surrendering their lead late on against the Toffees was compounded as Jose Mourinho’s men brushed Newcastle aside at Stamford Bridge to go two points clear.
Pellegrini says his side’s knowledge of winning titles and confidence in each other should see them overturn that deficit quickly, however.
“I think always this team believes in what they do,” he said.
“That is why I was so happy in the first 45 minutes against Everton, because we played with confidence and belief. They did it very well, and were unlucky not to score.
“For sure we are going to continue to fight for the title until the last game, there are two points in this moment and that is not a deficit that is important or a real advantage, so we will see if we can finish the season strongly.”
Samir Nasri rejected Man United after 'unconvincing speech' by Sir Alex Ferguson
Samir Nasri has revealed that he turned down an offer to sign for Manchester United back in 2011 because Sir Alex Ferguson's speech was 'unconvincing'.
The 27-year-old joined Manchester City from Arsenal almost four years ago, but the Frenchman has revealed that he held talks with then-United boss Ferguson before making a decision.
"We met in Paris with Sir Alex in a private apartment so as not to fuel rumours by meeting in a hotel," Nasri told beIN Sports.
"I was not convinced by his speech. There was one thing that was a problem. He said he had never hired an Arsenal player and he'd have to go to war. I told him that it does not interest me to go to war with [manager] Arsene Wenger."
Nasri spent three years playing for Arsenal before leaving for the North-West of England.
Manchester City In Talks Over £22m Juventus Deal That Could Help Them Sign Paul Pogba
Manchester City are in talks over a £22m deal to sell unwanted striker Stevan Jovetic to Juventus this January, according to the Sun.
The Montenegro international has been largely disappointing for City since he joined the club from Fiorentina last season, failing to establish himself as a regular in the side even after getting over his various injury problems.
Having been a hit in Serie A previously, Jovetic is now wanted back in Italy by champions Juventus, who are ready to take the player off City’s hands as they close in on the £28m signing of Wilfried Bony to strengthen upfront.
City want £22m for the 25-year-old, and it is thought that a deal to send the player to Juve could give the Premier League champions an advantage in a future deal for highly sought-after young midfielder Paul Pogba.
The Frenchman is widely regarded as one of the best young players in the world, and has been linked with City and other top clubs in the past, though it could now be that he will be in line for a move to the Etihad Stadium in the future.
On-loan Man City striker Guidetti signals permanent switch to Celtic
JOHN GUIDETTI has given another big hint yet that he sees his long-term future at Celtic.
The Swedish hitman is currently free to speak to other interested clubs as his contract with parent club, Manchester City, runs out in the summer.
But the Hoops remain in pole position, and manager Ronny Deila is using the mid-season trip to Gran Canaria to try and convince Guidetti he should commit to a permanent move.
Before heading to Maspalomas last week, the Hoops boss made it clear he would like an answer before this window closes.
Celtic have the distinct advantage of having already agreed a fee with City to make the move happen now.
This was determined at the time the deal was struck to bring him to Parkhead on a season-long loan.
But Guidetti's representatives continue to be contacted by other clubs willing to offer him a fresh start to a career which has stalled in recent years through injury, illness and lack of first-team action.
Celtic had to fight off stiff opposition during the summer to get him to come to Parkhead.
Feyenoord - where Guidetti enjoyed a successful loan spell in 2011-12, scoring 20 goals in 23 games before a serious virus sidelined him for a year - were among the front runners to take him back to Holland.
The 22-year-old was a huge favourite of the Feyenoord fans.
But he has been taken to the hearts of the Celtic supporters with his performances - and 11 goals - since he moved to Glasgow.
He feels a genuine bond with the Hoops fans, and admits he is honoured and delighted they have even come up with three different songs for him.
This relationship could yet be a deciding factor in the decision Guidetti has to make about his future.
It's all lies! Messi hits out at reports he could leave Barcelona for Man City or Chelsea
Lionel Messi insists he has no intention of leaving Barcelona, branding speculation linking with him a move to the Premier League as “lies”.
Stories have circulated in the Spanish press in recent weeks of Barca being in crisis with claims that many players, including Messi, were unhappy with coach Luis Enrique's tactics and coaching methods.
That led to speculation that Messi's stellar career at the Nou Camp could be coming to an end, with big-spending Chelsea and Manchester City both linked with potential bids for the Argentina superstar.
Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu responded to those reports by insisting that Messi and Luis Enrique were going nowhere while Chelsea assistant coach Steve Holland also poured cold water on the possibility of a move to Stamford Bridge.
And now Messi has spoken out, criticising those he feels are out to unsettle the Catalan giants.
"I don't demand anything for me to stay because I have no intention of leaving anywhere," he told Barca TV.
"I've heard stories I've spoken to Chelsea or City, that's all lies."
He added: "I've heard so many things. There have been things said in the past that I have bad relationships with (Pep) Guardiola, (Samuel) Eto'o, Bojan, Ibra (Zlatan Ibrahimovic), that's not true.
"I never asked for them to get rid of the coach or anybody. That's not true, I would never do that.
"It's a bit bad because the stories came from here in Barcelona from people who are supposed to be supporters of the club, not from Madrid as in other times, people who want to damage the club. More than ever we have to be united.
"They try to make out that I run the club, I'm just another player in the squad like my team-mates. I don't make decisions, I don't want to make decisions."
Messi was speaking after leading his side to a convincing 3-1 win over title rivals Atletico Madrid.
He helped create Neymar's opener and Luis Suarez's goal before half-time, before scoring the third late on and killing off Atleti's hopes of a comeback after Mario Mandzukic's penalty - which Messi had conceded after tripping Jesus Gamez.
His attentions will now turn to the Ballon d'Or ceremony in Zurich on Monday but the four-time winner admitted his chances of picking up the prestigious award for a fifth time were slim.
"Being realistic, I think it will be difficult," conceded Messi, who is one of the three finalists along with Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo and Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
"We are going to enjoy the gala. Cristiano Ronaldo and Neuer have both had fantastic years. One has won the Cup and the Champions League and scored lots of goals, the other has had a great year winning the World Cup."
Liverpool could sell forward Mario Balotelli, 24, this month to fund a double move for Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain, 27 and Sampdoria goalkeeper Sergio Romero, 27. (Daily Express)
Newcastle United midfielder Moussa Sissoko, 25, could exit St James' Park after he was quoted saying, "I hope I'll leave for a bigger club one day". Arsenal are reportedly interested in signing the France international. (Newcastle Chronicle)
Major League Soccer side Toronto FC are interested in a swap deal involving their striker Jermain Defoe, 32, and Sunderland's American forward Jozy Altidore, 25. (Sunderland Echo)
Manchester United are trying to sign 20-year-old Athletic Bilbao centre-half Aymeric Laporte for £25m. (Daily Star)
Newcastle United striker Papiss Cisse, 29, is being lined up by Swansea as a replacement for Wilfried Bony, 26, who is set to move to Manchester City. (Wales Online)
Swansea paid Bony £1m in November to remove a clause in his contract that would have seen him sold for £19m. The striker is now set to join Manchester City for £28m. (Sun)
Aston Villa are set to sign Valencia attacker Carles Gill, 22, for £3.2m in a bid to end their scoring crisis. (Daily Mirror)
West Brom and Crystal Palace want to sign Liverpool striker Rickie Lambert, 32, once the Reds bring Belgian forward Divock Origi, 19, to Anfield from his loan spell at French side Lille. (Daily Mirror)
Leicester City have made a £3m bid for Tottenham right-back Kyle Naughton, while Swansea and QPR are also interested in signing the 26-year-old. (Daily Mirror)
Liverpool are close to selling winger Oussama Assaidi to Dubai-based Al-Ahli for £4.7m. The 26-year-old's season-long loan spell at Stoke City has been terminated so he can move to the Middle East. (Liverpool Echo)
The Reds will have to pay £2m to bring in Sampdoria goalkeeper Norberto Neto in January. The 25-year-old, whose contract with the Italians expires in the summer, had been lined up by Juventus, but could provide competition for Simon Mignolet and Brad Jones at Anfield. (Daily Mirror)
Everton's veteran Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto'o, 33, could be set for a move to Serie A side Sampdoria on an 18-month loan deal. (Liverpool Echo)
Arsenal and Manchester United both want to sign £10m-rated Dutch centre-back Virgil van Dijk, 23 from Celtic. (Daily Star)
Championship side Wolverhampton Wanderers have agreed a fee to sign striker Benik Afobe, 21, from Arsenal. (Express and Star)
The Premier League may fine Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho for failing to attend his pre-match news conference before Saturday's game against Newcastle United. (Daily Telegraph)
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers says Jordan Henderson, 24, is ready to replace Steven Gerrard as captain next season. (Guardian)
The odds on Southampton achieving a top-four finish have been slashed to 7-4 by some bookmakers after their victory over Manchester United. (Racing Post)
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, 24, was dropped for the game against Stoke because of his poor form, not as a punishment after being caught smoking in the showers recently. (DSSC)
Arsenal legends Robert Pires and Thierry Henry were in attendance for the Gunners' victory over the Potters on Sunday. (Premier League)
Southampton manager Ronald Koeman thinks his side are good enough to qualify for the Champions League. (Southern Daily Echo)
Steve Bruce has dismissed rumours that former Manchester United midfielder Nicky Butt is to become his new assistant manager at Hull City. (Hull Daily Mail)
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers says his side can go on a similar run to the one that almost won them the Premier League title last season. (Sky Sports understands)
West Ham midfielder Ravel Morrison, 21, has complained to the players' union after claiming he did not get his £60,000 wages last month. (Sun)
Crystal Palace boss Alan Pardew is pleased none of his new players have got into trouble after saying he had to regularly fine Newcastle players while manager at St James' Park. (DSSC)
Liverpool defender Jose Enrique was unhappy at being charged £9.50 for a glass of orange juice and posted a picture of the hotel receipt on Instagram. Enrique added: "The most expensive glass of orange juice ever. They must have brought it from Spain walking."
Arsenal legends Thierry Henry and Robert Pires talked to the Gunners' players in their dressing room after their 3-0 win against Stoke. Defender Hector Bellerin posted a picture on Twitter of him with Henry, adding: "Clean sheet, three points and a quick snap with an Arsenal legend."
But Stoke goalkeeper Asmir Begovic was less happy after that match. He wrote on Twitter: "Tough day for us. Arsenal were the better team. Learn our lessons and move on to next week. Great support by our fans."
QPR striker Charlie Austin has been reminiscing about his days at John O'Gaunt School in Hungerford. "Mr Titcombe's geography class #best11inthebackofthebooks," he wrote on Twitter.
Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker, 30, has laughed off comments from Gunners goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny's father and insisted his performance against Stoke City proves he is no rhinoceros. (Talkshit)
Arsenal's ban on "selfie sticks" - the hand-held tripods allowing a better angle for cameraphone snaps - has been enforced with one fan apparently refused entry to Sunday's game against Stoke with the contraption. (Daily Mirror)
Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard, 34, who joins LA Galaxy in July, will "fall in love with Los Angeles", says former Wimbledon midfielder Vinnie Jones, now a Hollywood actor. (Sun)
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