CAS lifted Champions League ban on Manchester City

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has confirmed that UEFA's decision to ban Manchester City from the next two UEFA Champions League competition has been lifted.

The case concerned an appeal filed by Manchester City FC against a decision of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body, in which it was deemed to have breached UEFA’s Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations, resulting in a sanction where th club was banned from participation in UEFA club competitions in the next two seasons and ordered to pay a fine of EUR 30 million.

Following the hearing, the CAS Panel concluded that the decision issued by UEFA should be set aside and replaced by the following:

a.) MCFC has contravened Article 56 of the Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations.

b.) MCFC shall pay a fine of EUR 10,000,000 to the UEFA, within 30 days as from the date of issuance of the arbitral award.

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 dishonest concealment of equity funding were more significant violations than obstructing the CFCB’s investigations, the oanel concluded that it was not appropriate to impose a ban on participating in UEFA’s club competitions for Manchester City’s failure to cooperate with the UEFA's investigations alone.