Man City Banned From Signing Academy Players, Fined £300,000

Man City has been banned from signing academy players from English sides for two years and fined £300,000 ($389,500) after becoming the "latest club to fall foul of the Premier League's new rules on poaching," according to Paul Joyce of the LONDON TIMES. The second year of the embargo, which applies to players in the U10-U18 age range, is "suspended for a three-year period from June 30, 2018, and would only be triggered in the event of another breach." Man City was found guilty of two cases in which it "tapped up an 11-year-old from Everton and a 15-year-old from Wolverhampton Wanderers," but was "cleared of any wrongdoing in a case involving Louie Moulden, a 16-year-old goalkeeper who joined from Liverpool." A Premier League investigation found evidence that the club had "contacted members of each academy player's family while they were still registered at their previous clubs and, in doing so, contravened a five-step process, which was introduced in August" (LONDON TIMES, 5/6).