Mon 13 July 2020:
European football’s governing body on Monday confirmed that English Premier League club Manchester City’s two-year ban on participating in UEFA competitions has been lifted.
“UEFA takes note of the decision taken by the Court of Arbitration for Sport [CAS] to reduce the sanction imposed on Manchester City FC by UEFA’s independent Club Financial Control Body [CFCB] for alleged breaches of the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play regulations,” UEFA said on its website.
“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,” it added.
The verdict by three judges clears the team coached by Pep Guardiola to play in the group stage of the Champions League next season. The case does not affect City’s place in this season’s competition, which resumes next month.
City’s win guarantees tens of millions of dollars in UEFA prize money next season. It also protects against players leaving to seek Champions League action with another club.
Guardiola had pledged to stay in Manchester “no matter what happens” in the courts.
UEFA punished Man City in February for “serious breaches” of rules monitoring club finances and failing to cooperate with investigators. The allegations included that City, owned by Abu Dhabi’s royal family, misled UEFA over several years to meet financial integrity rules — known as Financial Fair Play — required to enter European club competitions.
City denied wrongdoing, and said it had “irrefutable evidence” the claims were not true.
In February, Manchester City was banned from European competitions for the next two seasons due to alleged breaches of UEFA’s club financial fair play regulations.
