Manchester City have overturned their two-year UEFA ban having previously been deemed to have breached Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.
The club were alleged to have falsified documents to show they earned more sponsorship revenue than they had, in order to be able to spend more money on player transfers.
UEFA's initial investigation started off the back of reports published by German publication Der Spiegel, which were based on 'leaked' documents obtained by internet hackers Football Leaks.
City have always protested their innocence, and quickly took their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for an appeal hearing.
The CAS announced on Monday that City were cleared of "disguising equity funds as sponsorship contributions", and reduced their punishment to €10million.
Here are three key takeaways from the verdict.
1. Overturned
CAS found the FFP allegations made against City were “either not established or time-barred”, meaning the three-strong panel of arbitrators felt there was insufficient evidence to prove them, or they fell outside of the five-year timeframe stipulated under UEFA's own regulations.
The allegations made in the case dated as far back as 2012 and up till 2016.
2. Rescinded
Given CAS was unable to find evidence to support the alleged FFP breaches, it considered the two-year Champions League ban to be unenforceable: “As the charges with respect to any dishonest concealment of equity funding were clearly more significant violations than obstructing the investigation, it was not appropriate to impose a ban on participating in UEFA’s club competitions for the failure to cooperate with the investigations alone.”
The decision means City will be able to compete in next season's competition having officially qualified for a place.
3. Fined
Despite their insistence they complied fully with UEFA and its investigation throughout, CAS did find City had shown a “disregard” of the process and had engaged in “obstruction” during it, which is why the club were still hit with a fine, albeit reduced from £25m to £9m.
Sign up to the Mirror Football email here for the latest news and transfer gossip.
