Man City blocked from adding two signings to Champions League squad.
Manchester City will be allowed to add three new players to their Champions League squad for the knockout rounds.
Omar Marmoush of Manchester City is greeted by Pep Guardiola after being substituted during the Premier League match between City and Chelsea.
Manchester City will only be able to register three new players for the Champions League knockout rounds.
City made it into the last-16 play-off with a comeback win over Club Brugge last week and will face Real Madrid in two legs this month. The Blues will enter as heavy underdogs, but Pep Guardiola remains optimistic about having more players available.
In addition to returning players from injury, City can register three new signings for the second stage of the competition. These changes must be submitted by February 6 before the knockout rounds begin.
After a busy January transfer window, which saw £175m spent on squad reinforcements, Guardiola has five extra players to consider for registration. Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis, and Omar Marmoush were all signed last month, and Claudio Echeverri will join once his commitments with the Argentina Under-20 team are over; their final match is on February 16.
However, City can only register three of these five players, as they have not met the necessary criteria for additional signings. UEFA allows four registrations if more than five players from the group stage squad have left and five if more than seven have left. The Blues cannot simply drop existing players to make room for new signings.
Echeverri is most likely to be excluded as he won’t be available for the Madrid match, while Vitor Reis, the youngest recruit, plays in the same position as Khusanov.