Reports from several UK media outlets suggest that former Chelsea FC midfielder Frank Lampard has decided to extend his stay with Manchester City until the end of the 2014-15 season. The move would come as a surprise considering the deal was originally a short term loan until January 2015 when Frank Lampard was to join the club that actually owns his rights, MLS side NYC FC. These same reports suggest that City has chosen to give Lampard £191,000-per-week in wages, about £40,000 more than he ever earned with Chelsea FC.
The reports claim that because of Yaya Toure’s impending absence from Manchester City to join up with the Ivory Coast side in the African Cup of Nations, City will be lacking options in midfield and Lampard has been chosen to fill that void. This would make sense if the deal was to be extended until February when the competition ends and not May or June.
The second reason brought to our attention is that Frank Lampard helps Manchester City meet the home grown player criteria both in FA competitions as well as the UEFA Champions League where they are already working with a reduced squad due to Financial Fair Play penalties. This reason is plausible as City have found a way to meet those home-grown requirements and field a quality player with an England passport all while avoiding paying an exorbitant transfer fee for a subpar English player.
This loophole in the home grown rules brings up an important question. Is what Manchester City within the rules of FFP and FA regulations? It appears that at the moment it is because no one, other than Arsene Wenger of course, has raised so much as an eyebrow about the move. NYC FC is owned by the same group that heads Manchester City so they are simply borrowing a player from themselves.
What is to stop them from buying another big name player, putting him on the NYC FC or Melbourne City FC squad, and send him on loan to Man City year after year? Eventually the powers that be would put an end to it but its unlikely they could be punished retroactively for something like that. There is still no confirmation from the club or Frank Lampard that these reports are true but if they are then Chelsea FC fans may look at Super Frank just a little bit differently if they haven’t started doing that already.
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