Simon Jordan has told talkSPORT he is delighted by Manchester City’s Champions League ban, because it means football authorities are finally ‘showing some teeth’ over financial fair play rules.
City were hit with their shock two-year ban from all European football last Friday, with the club also fined £25million due to their ‘serious breaches’ of FFP regulations.
The Premier League giants said in a statement they are ‘disappointed but not surprised’ by the ‘prejudicial’ decision, and also confirmed they will appeal the sanction to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ‘at the earliest opportunity’.
An appeal could potentially see their ban reduced or removed entirely; Chelsea took their transfer ban to CAS late last year and eventually had it halved from two windows to just one.
However, Jordan expects City’s suspension to stand and says it’s about time the law was laid down for mega-rich football clubs.
Speaking on talkSPORT’s Final Word on Sunday evening, the former Crystal Palace owner said: “There’s no bias here whatsoever.
“I know Manchester United fans and Liverpool fans will bask in this, but the reason why I was pleased is because I want to see football authorities have some teeth, I want to see the governance of the game mean something.
“I don’t begrudge Manchester City being successful, I think they’re a fantastic football club in lots of ways. I admired David Bernstein when he was the chairman, I admired them moving into the Commonwealth Stadium because it made sense for them and for the city.
“But I do not admire the idea that football is just about money, and the consequence of clubs like Man City and others run in a certain way is the drip down effect which is killing football outside of the Premier League.
“The reason I say it’s good is because this is something City have done before, and if you’ve done this before and you’ve got form then you should be beyond reproach.
“If anyone believes there’s an agenda, why would anybody single out Manchester City? Fans are going crazy saying hypocrite this, idiots that and UEFA are corrupt, and they might have been in previously incarnations, but there is no indication that this is not what it is.
“If it walks like a duck and it sounds like a duck, then I’m afraid it’s a duck!
‘Man City will huff, puff and threaten’ but Simon Jordan expects CAS to be tough on Champions League ban
“I think Man City will huff and puff and threaten and do whatever they can to try and get themselves out of this position, and there may well be a trade-off.
“In my experience, at least 90 per cent of the time the Court of Arbitration for Sport will side with the authority. In most cases.
“If there is an exception, I only see it as a slight reduction of the sanction. If they don’t have the courage of their convictions they might reduce it to one year, if Man City put them under an inordinate amount of pressure.”
Watch a clip of Simon Jordan on talkSPORT, above…
