Manchester City will be able to play in next season’s Champions League after their two-year ban was lifted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) today.
The club will still have to pay a fine, which has been reduced from €30 million to €10m which was another good news.
In its initial statement confirming City’s punishment, UEFA said that it found the Premier League club guilty of “overstating its sponsorship revenue in its accounts.
And also in the break even information submitted to UEFA between 2012 and 2016.”
Club CEO Ferran Soriano emphatically declaring:
“The allegations are not true, they are simply not true.”
UEFA’s investigation into the matter was prompted by the publication of a number of allegations by a German magazine.
Which drew on documents said to have been obtained by whistleblowers Football Leaks, in 2018.
Hostility has been simmering between the Premier League giants and European football’s governing body for almost a decade now.
Fans of Manchester City have made a habit of booing UEFA’s anthem when it is played ahead of Champions League games.
Something that has heightened since 2014, when the club first fell foul of Financial Fair Play.
