Manchester City could face a ban from next season’s Champions League over alleged deceptions of Uefa’s financial rules revealed in the Football Leaks scandal. European football’s governing body believes a potential transfer embargo is not a sufficient punishment for the Premier League champions if an independent inquiry into Financial Fair Play rules against the club in the coming days.

Senior Uefa officials – who previously launched sanctions against City in 2014 – are particularly enraged by leaked files from 2015, which claim almost £60 million was paid directly into the club by their billionaire Arab owners but declared as sponsorship.

Speaking here yesterday, Aleksander Ceferin, the Uefa president, appeared to indicate the allegations of FFP breaches were a “concrete case”. The documents, allegedly obtained by illegal email hacks, are said to show £59.5 million that was supposed to have come from City’s principal sponsor Etihad Airways – which sponsors the club’s stadium, shirts and training ground – was paid directly to the club by the Abu Dhabi United Group. To put that into context, City’s record signing is Riyad Mahrez, who cost £60 million from Leicester City last season.

Ceferin, speaking after a meeting of Uefa executives, said: “We are assessing the situation. We have an independent body working on it. Very soon we will have the answers on what will happen in this concrete case.”