The Portuguese broke his self-imposed media silence on Friday to hit out at the
Blues’ title rivals over their flagrant spending following the January acquisition of
Wilfried Bony
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has again hit
out at Manchester City for what he
perceives to be a blatant disregard for
Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, claiming
the Etihad outfit to not deserve to be the
champions of England.
Both Chelsea and City made big purchases in January, with Juan Cuadrado
moving to London for £24.8 million (€33m) and Wilfried Bony joining Manuel
Pellegrini’s side for £27m (€36m) .
But Mourinho is unhappy that Chelsea’s signing of Cuadrado was funded largely
through the sale of Andre Schurrle, while City, who were last year fined for
failing to comply with FFP regulations, splashed out on Bony despite only
releasing Matija Nastasic and Scott Sinclair on loan.
“It’s something that was explained 18 months ago when I met our owner [Roman
Abramovich] and the club board before I joined," Mourinho told reporters when
asked about FFP.
“It was explained the profile of club Mr Abramovich wants, with total respect to
the FFP rules. To keep the team strong, with the possibility to compete against
the ones financially more powerful or against the ones who don’t care and don’t
respect FFP, we had to work very hard.
"In my area, I tried to do that, analysing the players we can sell and those we
can buy. But when it goes to numbers, it goes out of my control.
“It’s a good challenge. The only thing that is not nice is that you compete
against the ones who don’t follow the same rules. That’s the only problem.
"I don’t think a team can be champions when you are punished, and it’s
happened before, because you didn’t comply with FFP.”
Mourinho, whose side top the table by five points ahead of Saturday’s game at
Aston Villa, claims he is frustrated by alleged double standards and when asked
what the best deterrent would be, said: “Points [deduction], of course.”
Manuel Pellegrini was forced to cut Steven Jovetic from his Champions League
knockout squad, which has already been reduced to 21, because of FFP
restrictions.
