City’s international break is almost over, but Tuesday has provided another busy day of news before attention turns fully towards Liverpool.
Fresh reporting has raised questions over evidence previously given by City to UEFA, details have emerged of a €100m transfer pursuit that didn’t come off, and one of the club’s academy prospects has earned national recognition.
There is also one final evening of international football to negotiate before Enzo Maresca can begin bringing his squad back together.
Previous City evidence returns to spotlight
The most significant development of the day concerns City’s appeal against the findings of the Premier League’s independent commission.
According to The Times, evidence previously given by City to UEFA has returned to focus because of how it compares with the case presented during the more recent Premier League proceedings.
The issue concerns two £15m payments connected with City’s Etisalat sponsorship agreement in 2012 and 2013. City previously told UEFA that the payments had been made by Jaber Mohamed, who was described during those proceedings as someone providing financial and brokering services to commercial organisations in the UAE. It subsequently emerged that Mohamed was general director of Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Court at the time.
The Times reports that City had also told UEFA, in relation to the Etisalat money, that “the payment was caused to be made by ADUG”.
UEFA’s adjudicatory body concluded that the £30m represented equity funding attributed to Etisalat’s sponsorship obligations. The Court of Arbitration for Sport later ruled that the Etisalat allegations were time-barred, meaning it did not determine whether those particular payments amounted to disguised equity funding.
City dispute the findings of the Premier League’s independent commission and have formally lodged an appeal, maintaining that its opinion contains material errors of law, principle and fact. It will be for the Appeal Board to determine what significance, if any, the earlier UEFA evidence has.
Maresca is also reportedly preparing to address his players over the situation when the international contingent returns to Manchester.
€100m Pavlovic pursuit and Parker recognition
There has been an intriguing transfer revelation too. Sky Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg says Manchester City had been pushing to sign Bayern Munich midfielder Aleksandar Pavlovic since March and were prepared to pay as much as €100m.
According to Plettenberg, the 22-year-old considered the possibility but ultimately decided against leaving Bayern. The reporter says no negotiations between the clubs took place.
The interest pre-dated City’s subsequent midfield business and provides a glimpse into how differently Maresca’s squad might have taken shape during the summer.
Meanwhile, 16-year-old Xavier Parker has been named in The Guardian’s Next Generation 2026 list. The City academy midfielder joined from West Ham in 2024 and has continued to make rapid progress, including travelling with Maresca’s senior squad on their summer tour of Asia.
Parker scored twice in City’s 4-1 EFL Trophy victory over Mansfield in August and is regarded as one of the leading prospects in the academy.
City’s international break reaches final night
Several City players still have international commitments to complete on Tuesday evening.
Marc Guehi, Elliot Anderson and Rico Lewis are available for England against Czechia at Wembley. Lewis was promoted from England Under-21 duty during the weekend, while Nico O’Reilly returned to City for assessment earlier in the break.
Josko Gvardiol and Mateo Kovacic could feature when Croatia face Spain, with both that fixture and England’s game beginning at 7.45pm.
Rayan Ait-Nouri’s Algeria face Niger at 8.30pm, while Enzo Fernandez and Geronimo Rulli are with Argentina for their 9pm friendly against Benin.
Erling Haaland has already completed his international programme after a busy schedule with Norway. His substitution against Portugal was attributed to exhaustion rather than injury.
Once Tuesday night’s fixtures are complete, Maresca can begin putting his squad back together ahead of Sunday’s trip to Liverpool.
City went into the three-week break top of the Premier League and with seven consecutive victories in all competitions. They return to a considerably more complicated backdrop, with Anfield providing the first opportunity to discover whether their early-season momentum has survived the interruption.
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