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.
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