Manchester City have had their UEFA Champions League ban overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) but would still pay a reduced fine.
The Adjudicatory Chamber of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) in February deemed Manchester City to have contravened UEFA’s Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations and sanctioned with exclusion from participation in UEFA club competitions in the next two seasons and ordered to pay a fine of €30 million.
The CAS on Monday reduced the fine to €10 million and lifted the ban. In a statement, CAS said: “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 is a statement said it welcomed the decision. “Whilst Manchester City and its legal advisors are yet to review the full ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the Club welcomes the implications of today’s ruling as a validation of the Club’s position and the body of evidence that it was able to present. The Club wishes to thank the panel members for their diligence and the due process that they administered,” read the statement.
