Manchester City have been given a two-year ban from signing academy players and fined £300,000 by the Premier League after breaching its youth development rules.
Under the ban, the second year of which is suspended for three years, City are unable to sign academy players aged 10-18 who have been registered with another Premier League or English Football League club during the previous 18 months.
City's punishment is effective from June 30 this year and relates to approaches made to the families of two separate academy players while they were under contract with other clubs.
Both youngsters joined City, who will not be allowed to retain either player.
A Premier League statement read: "Following an investigation, the Premier League found evidence that [Manchester City's] conduct prior to applying to register the players had contravened league rules.
"This included evidence of contact between the club and members of each academy player's family while those academy players were still registered with their previous clubs."
The statement added: "In each case, the academy player was conditionally registered with Manchester City while the Premier League's investigation was ongoing.
"As a result of the club's breaches, the players' registrations will be terminated on a specified date, with no compensation rights retained by the club, and the club will not be permitted to re-register them as academy players.
"In addition, Manchester City has offered to pay compensation to each player's previous club, and maintain educational provision for each player until the completion of his GCSEs."
Manchester City were contacted by Omnisport but are yet to comment on the matter.
Last month, Liverpool were given the same ban by the Premier League and fined £100,000 after admitting to a rule breach in their attempts to sign a youngster from Stoke City's academy.
