Champions League

Manchester City succeed with appeal against European ban

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 13 July 2020

Man City succeed with appeal against European ban

Manchester City will compete in the Champions League next season after having their two-year European ban lifted on appeal by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

CAS conducted a three-day review of February's initial ruling, which imposed a €30m (£26.9m) fine on Man City in addition to banning them from taking part in any European competition until 2022-23.

That ban has now been lifted entirely, clearing Man City to compete in the Champions League again next season, while the fine has been reduced to €10m (£9m).

"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," read a statement from the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

"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 €10m."

Man City responded to the ruling with a statement on their club website which read: "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."

Man City have already qualified for next season's Champions League and remain in this year's competition, holding a first-leg lead over Real Madrid in the last 16 ahead of their second leg at the Etihad Stadium next month.

The news is both a blow to UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules and to others in the Premier League top-four race, with fifth place no longer good enough for Champions League football next season.