Manchester City will participate in next season’s UEFA Champions League following a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Monday Africa Top Sports reports.
The Cityzens were slammed a two years ban from all UEFA organized competition by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) in 14 February 2020.
They were also asked to pay a fine of €30m for contravening UEFA’s Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations.
The Premier League club appealed to CAS for a soft landing and Monday’s decision also saw the ban lifted with the fine reduced to €10m.
Read Also:UEFA Champions League Quarter-Final, Semi-Final Draws Made
The panel of Arbitrators comprised of Mr Rui Botica Santos (Portugal), President, Prof. Ulrich Haas (Germany) and Mr Andrew McDougall QC (France) who asked UEFA to set aside the ruling against Manchester City.
They however agreed that Manchester City contravened Article 56 of the Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations.
CAS ruled that Manchester City did not disguise equity funding as sponsorship contributions but did fail to cooperate with the UEFA Authorities.
The Statement reads;
“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 2022
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.”
Responding to CAS decision, UEFA accepted the to respect it.
The Europe football governing body in a statement accepted that it didn’t provided insufficient evidence to uphold all of the CFCB’s conclusions.
“UEFA takes note of the decision taken by the Court of Arbitration for Sport to reduce the sanction imposed on Manchester City FC by UEFA’s independent Club Financial Control Body for alleged breaches of the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play regulations.
“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 5 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.
Manchester City in a statement after the ruling thanked the CAS panel members for their diligence and due process.
“Whilst Manchester City and its legal advisors are yet to review the full ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), 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.”
Manchester City are still in contention for this season’s UEFA Champions League and will host Real Madrid in the second leg of the round of 16 at the Etihad Stadium.
The first leg ended 1-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu.