Sports - Football - All Teams
Updated: July 13, 2020

UCL: Manchester City Sets To Play In the UEFA Champions League Next Season As CAS Lifts Ban After Appeal

By Oladimeji Balogun
July 13, 2020
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has lifted the ban on the former EPL champions, Manchester City after UEFA ban them for 2 years and a fine of £30M for breaching the financial fair play rules.

A statement from the CAS said City did not overstate their sponsorship contributions but did fail to cooperate with UEFA authorities. "Manchester City FC did not disguise equity funding as sponsorship contributions but did fail to cooperate with the UEFA authorities,"

"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," added CAS.

"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."

Manchester City responded to the verdict with a statement which read: "Whilst Manchester City and its legal advisors are yet to review the full ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, 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.

Manchester City will be able to play in next season's Champions League after their two-year ban from UEFA competitions was lifted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The club will still have to pay a fine, which has been reduced from €30 million (£25m/$33m) to €10m (£9m/$11m).

The ruling will have an impact on the clubs currently below City in the Premier League table. If the ban had been upheld, the team finishing in fifth place which is currently occupied by Manchester United would have qualified for the Champions League, with Europa League qualification extended to sixth and seventh.

Manchester City is still in this season edition of the UEFA Champions League, they are set to face Real Madrid in the second leg of the round of 16 at the Etihad stadium. They defeated the Los Blancos 2-1 at the Bernabeu.

After Pep Guardiola took over at the Manchester club over £300M if not more has been spent on transfer fees bringing in likes of De Bruyne, Mahrez, Rodi, Kyle Walker, Bernando Silva, Mahrez and Aymeric Laporte just to mention a few. These expenses have seen the UEFA looking into them if they are in tune with the financial fair play.

What is Financial Fair Play?

Financial Fair Play (FFP) was established by UEFA to make sure that football clubs were not spending more than they earned and, in doing so, prevent them from falling into financial troubles which may endanger their long-term survival – and, in their words, "improve the overall financial health of European football".

FFP regulations were also made in order to prevent clubs from over-spending across several seasons within a set budgetary framework.

The crux of FFP regulations is the break-even requirement, where clubs are ordered to not spend more than the income that they generate, and that they must balance their books over the course of three years.

In terms of revenue, only a club's outgoings in transfers, employee benefits (including wages), finance costs, and dividends will be considered over income from matchday sales, TV revenue, advertising, finance, player sales, and prize money.

Funds spent on infrastructure, training facilities or youth training will not be included.

The club has shown their happiness on social media after the ban was lifted and fans did not hide their own feelings too.

CLUB STATEMENT https://t.co/RlR33Vy2bI
— Manchester City (@ManCity) July 13, 2020

UEFA and CAS are a joke, scrap FFP if there are no punishments for breaking rules
— Mason (@mason17o) July 13, 2020

Corruption
— CFCGaz (On loan at Paderborn) (@ftblgazza) July 13, 2020

This what happened between Manchester City and Uefa inside the court hearing pic.twitter.com/WMwuxOtPLN
— Mentality Monsters (@parkthebus8989) July 13, 2020