Manchester City have won their appeal against a European ban and will be free to play in next season’s Champions League.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) agreed with the Blues that Uefa’s decision to throw them out of their competitions for “serious breaches” of their financial fair play rules and their club licensing rules, as well as alleged non-cooperation, was wrong.
The club still faces a fine, reduced to ten million euros.
The CAS statement said: "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."
The details of the CAS ruling have yet to be released, but City are believed to have appealed on the basis that Uefa’s decision was based on incomplete and hacked emails, had contravened their own rules, and that leaks to sections of the media from within the European governing body had meant they did not get a fair hearing.
City faced a two-year ban which would have cost them up to £300million in lost revenue, and could also have led to some star players considering a transfer request.
Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling had both indicated that they could seek a move away from the club if the two-year ban was not either quashed or reduced.
The problem began when the Football Leaks website published internal City emails which appeared to show executives had sought to “cheat” the financial fair play rules.
The Blues always refuted the suggestion and said the leaks were taken out of context as part of an “organised and clear” attempt to damage the club’s reputation.
The man who obtained the emails, Portuguese citizen Rui Pinto, has since been arrested by police in his homeland and charged with 90 offences including attempted extortion, computer hacking and breach of correspondence.
But Uefa, after demanding more documentation from City - who said they had already made all documentation available - decided to charge the club.
City have already secured a top four finish and today’s decision means they will now be free to take part in next year’s competition.
