Klopp: City’s appeal victory not good for football

Liverpool's German manager Jurgen Klopp

Liverpool boss Juergen Klopp described as “not a good day for football” Manchester City’s successful appeal against a two-year Uefa ban for allegedly breaking Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.

“I don’t think it was a good day for football yesterday, to be honest,” Klopp told a virtual news conference yesterday.

“FFP is a good idea. It is there for protecting teams and the competition, so that nobody overspends and have to make sure the money they want to spend is based on the right sources.”

City won their appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Monday, meaning they will now be allowed to compete in next season’s Champions League.

CAS ruled that City did not breach FFP rules by disguising equity funding as sponsorship.

“It’s not up to me to judge this and I don’t but I think this FFP framework we should stick to. I hope FFP stays just because it gives kind of borders that you can go to, but not over it, and that’s good for football,” Klopp said.

“If you start doing that nobody has to care any more and the richest people or countries can do what they want.

“It will make the competition really difficult and I think that would lead automatically to a kind of world super league with like 10 clubs and it would depend on who owns the clubs and not the names of the clubs. It makes sense to have these rules.” Klopp did say, however, that City’s place in the Champions League next season might at least benefit Liverpool as they try to retain their Premier League title.

“They won’t have 10 or 12 games less now — no other team would have had a chance in the (Premier) league,” he said.

Liverpool face Arsenal on today knowing defeat would end their chances of equalling City’s record 100-point haul in the Premier League set two years ago.