In a recent development, La Liga president Javier Tebas has criticised the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after it overturned the Manchester City’s Champions League ban.
Notably, Europe’s football governing body UEFA had banned City in February for breaching their Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations between 2012 to 2016.
Had CAS not ruled in their favour, City would not have taken part in the Champions League or the Europa League for two years.
“We have to reassess whether CAS is the appropriate body to which to appeal institutional decisions in football,” Tebas told reporters as per independent.co.uk. (via IANS)
“Switzerland is a country with a great history of arbitration, CAS is not up to standard.”
Not only was their ban lifted but even their fine has been lessened by CAS. The last two seasons’ Premier League champions were initially fined 30 million euros but now the fine has been cut to 10 million euros.
“Manchester City FC did not disguise equity funding as sponsorship contributions but did fail to cooperate with the UEFA authorities,” the CAS statement read.
“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,” it added.