Manchester City’s UEFA ban has been overruled by the CAS.
BREAKING: Manchester City will play in the Champions League next season after club’s two-year ban from European football overturned
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) July 13, 2020
If the original ruling was upheld, City would have been banned from UEFA competitions for 2 years. Pep Guardiola’s side has won every trophy they could have except for the Champions League & subsequently the UEFA Super Cup.
Now the race for Top 4 in the Premier League is 4 teams for 2 spots. The Champions Liverpool & City are in for next season & Chelsea, Leicester City, Manchester United & Wolves will battle for the final two spots over the last run of games.
You can read the entirely of both the CAS & the Manchester City statements below.
CAS statement
CAS said the club was cleared of “disguising equity funds as sponsorship contributions” and their fine was also reduced by a third to $11.3 million. Here is the statement in full from CAS:
“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.”
Manchester City statement
Manchester City released the following statement on the decision, as they are still in the Champions League this season and they lead Real Madrid 2-1 after the first leg of their Round of 16 clash
“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.”
