Manchester City’s European Ban Lifted On Appeal

Manchester City will participate in next season’s Champions League after their two-year ban from UEFA competitions was lifted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The club however, will still have to pay a fine. The citizens will now pay a reduced fine of €10m as against the initial €30m the club was slapped with. 

City were initially punished by UEFA in February, when they were banned from competing in the Champions League for two years and given a €30m fine for breaching Financial Fair Play rules.

In its initial statement confirming City’s punishment, UEFA said that it found the Premier League club guilty of “overstating its sponsorship revenue in its accounts and in the break-even information submitted to UEFA between 2012 and 2016.” A statement from the CAS said City did not overstate their sponsorship contributions but did fail to cooperate with UEFA authorities.”

Manchester City FC did not disguise equity funding as sponsorship contributions but did fail to cooperate with the UEFA authorities,” read the heading to the CAS statement.

“The CAS award emphasized that most of the alleged breaches reported by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the CFCB were either not established or time-barred,” added CAS, which will publish its full written reasons over the coming days.

Time barred, in this case, means that they happened more than five years ago and couldn’t be investigated/ punished again. added CAS, which will publish its full written reasons over the coming days.

“As the charges with respect to any dishonest concealment of equity funding were clearly more significant violations than obstructing the CFCB’s investigations, it was not appropriate to impose a ban on participating in UEFA’s club competitions for MCFC’s failure to cooperate with the CFCB’s investigations alone.”

City responded to the verdict with a statement, which read: “Whilst Manchester City and its legal advisors are yet to review the full ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the club welcomes the implications of today’s ruling as a validation of the club’s position and the body of evidence that it was able to present.

“The club wishes to thank the panel members for their diligence and the due process that they administered.”