Manchester City two-year ban from European competitions overturned

The Court of Arbitration for Sports has on Monday 13th July 2020 delivered a ruling on an appeal filed by the Manchester City Club following a two-year ban from European competitions by the UEFA.

Manchester City had been accused of inflating the value of a sponsorship deal with the intention of misleading the UEFA on its finances as stipulated by the Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.

The club was subsequently fined 30 million Euros and also banned from European competition for two years. The fine and the ban would have severely impacted the club and its performance. Manchester City denied the allegations and appealed the penalty at the Court of Arbitration for Sports.

In its ruling, the Court indicated that although the club had indeed failed to cooperate with UEFA authorities, it was not appropriate to ban the said club from participating in UEFA competitions simply because of this failure to cooperate, ””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 Manchester City’s failure to co-operate with the CFCB’s investigations alone.”

The Court also reduced the fine imposed on the club from 30 million Euros to 10 million Euros. Manchester City are now free to participate in the coming season’s Champion’s League. The club has since released a statement in regard to the ruling.

CLUB STATEMENT https://t.co/RlR33Vy2bI

— Manchester City (@ManCity) July 13, 2020