Manchester City have had their Champions League ban overturned and their name cleared after charges of “serious breaches” of Financial Fair Play.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld their appeal to quash the punishment imposed by Uefa in February, which also included a fine of €30million.
City will instead have to pay a fine of €10m, just under £9m.
It brings to an end their long-running battle with European football’s governing body and removes the cloud that has hung over them since the publication of supposed leaked emails and documents.
City always maintained they were innocent of all charges after they were accused of overstating sponsorship deals to disguise funds being pumped into the club by owner Sheikh Mansour.
Uefa’s Adjudicatory Chamber also claimed they failed to cooperate with investigations when issuing the ban.
But City were adamant they would be cleared and spared no cost when assembling a legal team to represent them at a three-day hearing at CAS in June.
Reacting to the announcement, City said: ''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.''
A statement released by CAS read: ''The CAS award emphasised 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.
''However, considering i) the financial resources of MCFC; ii) the importance of the cooperation of clubs in investigations conducted by the CFCB, because of its limited investigative means; and iii) MCFC’s disregard of such principle and its obstruction of the investigations, the CAS Panel found that a significant fine should be imposed on MCFC and considered it appropriate to reduce Uefa’s initial fine by 2/3, i.e. to the amount of EUR 10 million.
''The final award with reasons will be published on the CAS website in a few days.''
Uefa can still appeal the decision, and in a statement released immediately after the verdict they swore to stay 'committed to its principles' on FFP.
''Uefa notes that the CAS panel found that there was insufficient conclusive evidence to uphold all of the CFCB’s conclusions in this specific case and that many of the alleged breaches were time-barred due to the 5 year time period foreseen in the Uefa regulations.
''Over the last few years, Financial Fair Play has played a significant role in protecting clubs and helping them become financially sustainable and Uefa and ECA remain committed to its principles.
''Uefa will be making no further comments on the matter.''
To help prove their innocence City appointed top barrister Lord David Pannick QC – described as a “superstar of the Bar,” who successfully overturned Boris Johnson’s proroguing of Parliament last year.
As recently as last week Pep Guardiola insisted he was certain they would be playing Champions League football next season, revealing he had studied their defence.
“It was an issue from a long time ago,” he said. “Maybe 90 percent of the people who are on the pitch or the backroom staff were not there.
“I try to be involved in knowing exactly what happened and I am fully confident about what the club has done and it will allow us to play in the Champions League next season because we won it on the pitch during the season.
“I’m confident. That’s all I can say. I don’t know anything about this – just a feeling because we know exactly what the club has done and that will allow us to play in the Champions League next season. To be recognised by everyone that nothing wrong happened.”
Uefa opened an investigation into City’s finances last year following a series of damaging articles published by German magazine Der Spiegel in 2018.
Using information provided by the whistle blower Football Leaks, the reports claimed to detail complex strategies employed by City to disguise the level of investment from their Abu Dhabi owners.
It was alleged a £67.5million deal with Etihad included £59.5m-worth of investment from the Mansour-owned Abu Dhabi United Group. Other allegations detailed a secret project dubbed ‘Longbow’, which involved selling off image rights to a company claimed to be funded by the same group.
One damning email alleged to be from City’s chief financial officer, Jorge Chumillas, claimed to declare the need for £9.9million of “AD” (believed to be Abu Dhabi) sponsorship to pay off sacked manager Roberto Mancini “in order to comply with Uefa FFP”.
The charges related to the period between 2012-16.
City long-maintained the investigation was prejudiced, claiming it was “initiated by Uefa, prosecuted by Uefa and judged by Uefa.”
Responding to the allegations after the original verdict, Chief executive Ferran Soriano said: “They are simply not true. The owner has not put money in this club that has not been properly declared.
“We are a sustainable football club, we are profitable, we don’t have debt, our accounts have been scrutinized many times, by auditors, by regulators, by investors and this is perfectly clear.”
“I am also looking for the end of this process maybe to put a pen under this undertone that we are hearing all the time that anything that we do, any result that we get is based only on money and not on talent and effort.”
