The Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS) on Monday overturned Manchester City’s Champions League ban that would have seen them miss the next two editions of the top continental tournament.
Europe’s governing body UEFA had banned City in February for breaching their Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations between 2012 to 2016 and they couldn’t have taken part in Champions League or the Europa league for two years if CAS hadn’t ruled in their favour.
The English giants were initially directed by UEFA to pay 30 million Euros in fine as well but the CAS ruling also saw it brought down to 10 million euros.
“Manchester City FC did not disguise equity funding as sponsorship contributions but did fail to cooperate with the UEFA authorities,” read the heading to the CAS statement, as per Goal.com
“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.
“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 manager Pep Guardiola had earlier expressed confidence that the two-year ban on the club from UEFA competitions would be overturned.
“I have a lot of confidence and trust with the people that we will be allowed to play the Champions League, because we want to be on the field during these years,” Guardiola had said last week.