Manchester City can definitely take a break and look forward to their next seasons more calmly. If the club showed "the greatest contempt" for the UEFA investigation, it "did not break the rules" of financial fair play (FPF), according to the full judgment released Tuesday by the Arbitral Tribunal of sport (TAS). The two-year suspension of the English club for the European Cups is therefore definitively canceled.
A long investigation
This judgment explains in detail that UEFA, despite a long investigation, has failed to prove that City had concealed sources of funding by its owners by passing them off as sponsorship. The CAS has also reduced from 30 to 10 million euros the fine decided by the supreme body of European football for the club's lack of cooperation with investigators.
The other Manchester club changed categories in 2008 when they were taken over by Abu Dhabi royal family Sheikh Mansour. He was later accused of inflating the value of sponsorship income from Etisalat and Etihad Airways to comply with FPF rules. The UEFA investigation was triggered by revelations from German magazine Der Spiegel in 2018, based on internal emails from the English club.
Uncooperative city
The CAS also regrets, in its judgment, that City waited until the last minute, and therefore the appeal procedure, to enter into the file testimonies from club leaders and a letter from Cheikh Mansour that had not been produced during the initial investigation. Finally, the CAS acknowledges that UEFA found itself faced with a dilemma made worse by the lack of available time: to wait for further evidence from City and / or to have to pronounce a sanction before the start of the campaign. 2020/2021 European Cups.
Nine Premier League clubs (Arsenal, Burnley, Chelsea, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester United, Newcastle, Tottenham and Wolverhampton) had asked UEFA to ban City from taking part in the Champions League if a judgment was not delivered before the start of the 2020-21 season.
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- Champions League
- Uefa
- Financial fair play
- Soccer
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- Manchester city