Zimpapers Logo

MANCHESTER City have successfully overturned their two-year ban from European club competitions which will impact Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur’s race for Champions League qualification.

City will now be allowed to play in the 2020/21 Champions League campaign. Seeing as Pep Guardiola’s side won the Carabao Cup, this means the next Europa League spot will go to whoever finishes sixth in the Premier League. If any side other than Arsenal win the FA Cup, this will shift down to seventh place.

As things stand, Chelsea are third, Tottenham Hotspur are eight and Arsenal are ninth with three games to play.

“Following the hearing, the CAS Panel deliberated and concluded that the decision issued on 14 February 2020 by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the CFCB should be set aside and replaced by the following:” the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced on Monday.

“a.) MCFC has contravened Article 56 of the Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations.

“b.) MCFC shall pay a fine of €10 million to UEFA, within 30 days as from the date of issuance of the arbitral award.

“The CAS award emphasised that most of the alleged breaches reported by the Adjudicatory Chamberof the 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 thata significant fine should be imposed on MCFC and considered it appropriate to reduce UEFA’s initialfine by 2/3, i.e. to the amount of EUR 10 million.

“The final award with reasons will be published on the CAS website in a few days.”

UEFA also issued a statement following the decision stating: “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 5-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.” – Football London