Former Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger has backed the two-year ban handed to Manchester City by UEFA for breaching the Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.
His remarks came as UEFA on Friday decided to hand Manchester City a two-season suspension from Champions League. Along with this, the side was also asked to pay a fine of 30 million euros.
However, after this decision, City had revealed that they would indeed appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
"I was always for control of the financial rules. Let the clubs work with the natural income they have.The rules have been created. I am convinced that at the moment there is an evolution to be made in the way the rules are built up at the moment, but they are what they are and you have to respect them," Goal.com quoted Wenger as saying.
"People who don't respect them and are caught trying to get around the rules are more or less legal ways have to be punished. If it's proven that this has been done on purpose then this cannot go unpunished," he added.
However, the former Arsenal coach also said that some evolution is indeed needed in the FFP rules and regulations.
"Sport is about winning by respecting the rules. If there's no respect for the rules, it's not a real sport, which is what I think is most important," Wenger said.
"I don't know the rule exactly well enough to see what kind of punishment has to be made when the rules are not respected. They have not created that. It must be in the rule book. Somebody has not said 'let's do that'. No, this is certainly the sanction that is planned if the clubs don't respect the rules," he added.
( With inputs from ANI )