The Court of Arbitration for Sport revokes the ban on Manchester City from playing in Europe
Manchester City will be able to continue playing in the Champions League for the next two seasons 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 thanks to the mediation of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), a body that has annulled the previous sanction imposed by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) after it pointed out the English club for violating the rules of financial fair play.
European football's top governing body punished the entity owned by the Sheikh of the United Arab Emirates, Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, by banning it from European tournaments for the next two years after accusing it of adulterating financial income for advertising purposes in order to raise its monetary limit so that it could sign more players. The Manchester club was charged with disguising state capital funds as sponsorship income. The CAS (the arbitration body that resolves regulatory disputes in the world of sport) indicated that the 'sky blue' team had not breached the financial fair play that all teams must follow and that financial irregularities had in any case become time-barred. The arbitration institution also reduced the financial penalty that the 'cityzen' had received for this issue, which was initially 30 million euros and has now been reduced to only ten.
These sanctions had been imposed last February for exceeding between 2012 and 2016 the financial limit imposed, a regulation and financial control that UEFA had established in 2011 to clean up the economies of the various continental football entities and which states that they can only spend up to five million euros more than they earn in a period of three years.
The CAS has considered that the UEFA sanction against City "should be annulled and replaced" because many of the irregularities detected by the highest body of European football prescribed or could not be proved. The institution believes that the English club did not disguise "capital funds" as "sponsorship income", but it does believe that it failed to comply with Article 56 of the regulations on club licensing and financial 'fair play' and that it failed to cooperate with the authorities: "It was not appropriate to prohibit Manchester City's participation in UEFA competitions because the club did not cooperate with the investigations," the ruling argues, adding that the full order with all the arguments for the reduction of the penalty against the team coached by Pep Guardiola will be published in a few days. The text revealed on Monday is brief and does not detail case by case the violations detected, thus making a general assessment.
This decision is a relief for the English team, since not playing the Champions League in the next two years would be a hard economic blow to the coffers of one of the most powerful entities at present in European football.
The Etihad Stadium team has the strong financial boost provided by the flow of money from the Emirates, playing the role of a major flagship for Emirati investment in international football, but not being able to play in European competition would have taken away financial muscle for player recruitment and would have made it less attractive to fans in general by not being on the big stage of Europe's top club competition, the Champions League. A competition that City plays every season thanks to their good performances in the English Premier League and which is the most precious trophy at a continental level.
The good news could definitely confirm the continuity of Manchester City's latest project led from the dugout by Spanish coach Pep Guardiola, who this 2019-2020 season is seeking to finally win the coveted Champions League title (a major goal for the Emirate's investor since his arrival in 2008) after winning everything in the English domestic competition. The fact that City will be able to continue competing in Europe will certainly help to ensure that the team's great players, or those to come, continue to find it attractive to play for the 'sky blue' team.
