Manchester City of the English Premier League (EPL) agreed to a settlement with Europe's soccer governing body, UEFA, as punishment for failing to meet the requirements of the "Financial Fair Play" (FFP) rules.

Manuel Pellegrini's squad, which recently clinched the EPL title for the second time in three years, will be restricted to 21 players during next season of UEFA Champions League play and fined €60 million ($82,056,000 USD) -- withheld from their Champions League revenue generated from this season and the next. Man City will have €40 million ($54,644,000 USD) returned if the newly-crowned EPL champions can comply with the financial measures set by UEFA. The team will also be limited in their net spend during this summer's transfer window to €60m ($82,056,000 USD).

Man City officials insist the UEFA sanctions "will have no material impact on the club's planned transfer activity" and that payroll will remain the same next season with a "natural decline" after next season.

"We know exactly the players that need to go and the players that need to come in, the areas that need to be strengthened and the players that we intend to bring in to fill these areas," said Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak to Man City TV.

Manchester City was one of nine teams punished by UEFA under the FFP rules, first introduced in 2009 and implemented in 2011 for teams that qualify into UEFA's annual club competitions (Champions League and Europa League) intended for teams to keep the books balanced and prevent team owners from going bankrupt while leveling the economic "playing field" for European club teams that generate less revenue looking to compete in the yearly tournaments.

Russian Premier League squads Zenit Saint Petersburg, Rubin Kazan, and Anzhi Makhachkala; Turkish Süper Lig clubs Bursaspor, Trabzonspor, and Galatasaray; Levski Sofia from Bulgaria's A Football Group; and France's Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) have all been sanctioned by UEFA, with PSG accepting a one-time £20 million ($33,686,000 USD) fine for failing to meet the FFP standard.

"We will keep investing in the club, we will keep competing at every level, we will keep investing in youth, we have a sustainable project today in Manchester and across the board in the City football group," said Al Mubarak to Man City TV. "We have zero debt, we don't pay a penny to service any debt. For me, that's a sustainable model. However, our friends in UEFA seem to believe otherwise. They have their view, we have ours, I disagree with their views, but we are pragmatic."

Critics of FFP say that, while they understand the intent of the rule in its attempts to curb spending more money than club owners are able to generate as well as giving smaller clubs a chance to compete in UEFA's Champions League and Europa League, FFP has managed to maintain a status quo that hurts the intentions of the financial rules.

"UEFA president Michel Platini wanted to 'counter financial doping.' However, the main benefactors of FFP are the ones who have more money than others," said Ouriel Daskal to CNN. "There's regulation on expenditure and external income (from the pockets of the rich) but there's no regulation on income -- media rights, transfer market, prize money and matchday income. So what happens right now is that clubs who have money can take out more money and therefore make more money. This has resulted in growing gaps between the haves and have-nots, which is a lot more disruptive and corrosive than financial doping."

Others point out to the rule's failure to create the promised financial level playing field so that more teams can participate in UEFA's Champions League and Europa League tournaments. Former chief executive for French club Monaco, Tor-Kristian Karlsen -- who also worked with Bundesliga's Bayer Leverkusen of Germany and Zenit St Petersburg -- questions the fairness of the rule for soccer clubs generating less revenue than the top-flight clubs that make regular appearances in the European tournaments.

"It makes it difficult for the smaller teams because to be profitable you have to enjoy success on the pitch," said Karlsen to CNN. "It's a vicious circle. To be more successful you have to spend and if you spend and become successful, you'll bring in more money, more sponsors, attract larger crowds and sell more seats."

Belgian lawyer Jean-Louis Dupont, who was a part of the legal team that changed business practices in European soccer in 1995, has a different view on FFP.

Dupont helped Belgian soccer player Jean-Marc Bosman sue for the right to move from RFC Liège in Beligium to Dunkerque in France after Dunkerque refused to pay the transfer to Liège despite Bosman being at the end of his contract, winning the case in front of the European Court of Justice. The European Union (EU) banned restrictions on EU players within the various Eurpean leagues and allowed for players at the end of their contracts to move clubs without their new prospective club paying a transfer fee.

Dupont argues that FFP is actually illegal, under EU law, especially the break-even component that restricts commerce.

"FFP sounds good. Who wouldn't support good governance and fairness of the game?" said Dupont to CNN.com. "But when you scratch the surface, the break-even rule is no more than a prohibition to invest. UEFA prohibits the owner of a club to spend his own money in the club, at least to buy players, in order to make it grow and to challenge the established top dogs. Today, with this rule, Roman Abramovich could not build his Chelsea project and turn it into one of Europe's top clubs. In other words, the rule ossifies the market structure. The few top European clubs will remain the same forever, there will be no new kid in town."

Dupont hopes that both clubs teams such as Man City and PSG -- with rich and powerful ownerships -- as well as the fans of the club that generate less revenue get behind abolishing FFP altogether.

"They are the consumers of the football product and the ultimate aim of competition law is to protect the consumers," said Dupont. "Since the break-even rule will stop for ever the vast majority of clubs from challenging the existing top European clubs, the fans of these 'underdog' clubs have a legitimate interest and can ask the judge to declare the break-even rule null and void. And the same goes for (for instance) the sponsors of all these clubs."