LAUSANNE: Manchester City will be able to take its Champions League spot next season after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in the Premier League side’s favour, removing the two-year ban from European competition that had been handed down by UEFA in February.
CAS also reduced the fine that UEFA had slapped on the Abu Dhabi-owned club from €30 million to €10 million.
The operative part of the CAS verdict reads: “The CAS award emphasised that most of the alleged breaches reported by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body (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 two-thirds, i.e. to the amount of EUR 10 million.”
The CAS Panel which was hearing City’s appeal concluded that the ruling (that MCFC “committed serious breaches of UEFA’s club licensing and FFP regulations”) issued on 14 February by the Adjudicatory Chamber of UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) should be set aside and replaced by:
a.) MCFC has contravened Article 56 of the Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations.
b.) MCFC shall pay a fine of €10,000,000 to the UEFA, within 30 days as from the date of issuance of the arbitral award.
UEFA issued the following statement following the CAS ruling: “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 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.”
The case stems from a series of articles published by German magazine Der Spiegel in November 2018, citing documents and emails provided by the whistle-blowing platform ‘Football Leaks’, which accused City of trying to get around European football’s FFP rules. City had repeatedly described Der Spiegel’s reports as the product of a “clear and organised” attempt to tarnish their reputation.
On March 7, 2019 UEFA announced it had launched a formal investigation into alleged breaches of FFP rules by City following a series of fresh allegations in the media. City said in a statement issued at the time: “Manchester City welcomes the opening of a formal UEFA investigation as an opportunity to bring to an end the speculation resulting from the illegal hacking and out of context publication of City emails. The accusation of financial irregularities are entirely false.”
On March 8, the Premier League also confirmed it was conducting its own investigation into City’s alleged FFP breaches.
Meanwhile, following the verdict, LaLiga president Javier Tebas accused CAS of being “not up to standard”.
Tebas said: “We have to reassess whether the CAS is the appropriate body to which to appeal institutional decisions in football.
“Switzerland is a country with a great history of arbitration. The CAS is not up to standard.”
