Manchester City have had their two-year ban from the Champions League lifted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The news will come as a blow to the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Leicester City, who must now finish in the top four of the Premier League in order to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Had City’s ban been upheld then any team finishing in fifth place would have qualified.
Leicester look in most danger of losing out in that race after picking up just one win in six Premier League matches since the restart.
Brendan Rodgers’ side had surprised many by surging into third place behind Liverpool and City before the coronavirus lockdown but a dreadful run of form – culminating in Sunday’s 4-1 defeat to relegation-threatened Bournemouth – has seen Chelsea and Manchester United close the gap.
Why CAS overturned Man City’s ban
Uefa’s club financial control body (CFCB) sanctioned City in February for what it said was a breach of its Financial Fair Play (FFP) and club licensing regulations.
The CFCB said City had overstated sponsorship revenue in their accounts and in the break-even information submitted to Uefa between 2012 and 2016, and for failing to cooperate with its investigation.
City immediately signalled their intention to appeal, and CAS has now cleared them to compete in the Champions League next season and reduced a €30 euro fine to €10m.
In its verdict, CAS stated that City “did not disguise equity funding as sponsorship contributions”, however, they did “fail to cooperate with Uefa authorities”.
CAS said that most of the allegations against City were “either not established or were time-barred”.
The court said a full list of reasons for its decision will be published on its website in the coming days.
How did Uefa respond?
Uefa said it “took note” of the decision, adding: “Uefa notes that the CAS panel found that there was insufficient conclusive evidence to uphold all of the CFCB’s conclusions in this specific case and that many of the alleged breaches were time-barred due to the five-year time period foreseen in the Uefa regulations.
“Over the last few years, Financial Fair Play has played a significant role in protecting clubs and helping them become financially sustainable and Uefa and ECA remain committed to its principles.
“Uefa will be making no further comments on the matter.”
CAS verdict in full
Lausanne, 13 July 2020 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has issued its decision in the arbitration procedure between Manchester City Football Club and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).
The case concerns an appeal filed by Manchester City FC (MCFC) against the decision of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) dated 14 February 2020 in which it was deemed to have contravened UEFA’s Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations and sanctioned with exclusion from participation in UEFA club competitions in the next two seasons and ordered to pay a fine of EUR 30 million.
The Panel of arbitrators in charge of the matter, composed of Mr Rui Botica Santos (Portugal), President, Prof. Ulrich Haas (Germany) and Mr Andrew McDougall QC (France), conducted a hearing with the parties, their legal representatives, witnesses and experts on 8, 9 and 10 June 2020.
Following the hearing, the CAS Panel deliberated and concluded that the decision issued on 14 February 2020 by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the CFCB should be set aside and replaced by the following:
a.) MCFC has contravened Article 56 of the Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations.
b.) MCFC shall pay a fine of EUR 10,000,000 to the UEFA, within 30 days as from the date of issuance of the arbitral award.
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. 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.
However, considering i) the financial resources of MCFC; ii) the importance of the cooperation of clubs in investigations conducted by the CFCB, because of its limited investigative means; and iii) MCFC’s disregard of such principle and its obstruction of the investigations, the CAS Panel found that a significant fine should be imposed on MCFC and considered it appropriate to reduce UEFA’s initial fine by 2/3, i.e. to the amount of EUR 10 million.
The final award with reasons will be published on the CAS website in a few days.
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