It impossible that a sports journalist can, with almost none of the evidence and without accounting or legal training, assess City's compliance or otherwise to FFP; its laws and their applicability in Swiss and EU law (if any); English contractual law regarding contracts they haven't seen; sponsorship tender processes (which they also haven't seen); UEFA processes; international accounting standards; geo-politics; or the commercial global investment thesis of Abu Dhabi.
They don't know the distinction, they couldn't understand the distinction and they don't care about the distinction. Hopefully a court (arbitration or otherwise) has a stab.