Official: CAS lift Manchester City’s European ban, reduce fine, kill FFP

Well, there you have it, folks. If you ever needed any further proof that Financial Fair Play regulations are neither fair nor have any power when it comes to big clubs, here you go.

Manchester City will be playing in the Champions League next season after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned the the club’s two-year ban from European football, which has handed to them in February by UEFA Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) for breaching UEFA’s Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations.

This means that Chelsea will have to finish in the top four. Fifth place will not be enough for Champions League qualification.

Here is an excerpt from CAS’ statement:

MANCHESTER CITY FC DID NOT DISGUISE EQUITY FUNDING AS SPONSORSHIP CONTRIBUTIONS BUT DID FAIL TO COOPERATE WITH THE UEFA AUTHORITIES

CAS DECISION: EXCLUSION FROM PARTICIPATION IN UEFA CLUB COMPETITIONS LIFTED; FINE MAINTAINED BUT REDUCED TO EUR 10 MILLION

Following the hearing, the CAS Panel deliberated and concluded that the decision issued on 14 February 2020 by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the CFCB 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 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.

-Court of Arbitration for Sport

Well, I’d like to quote Mourinho here and say, “I prefer not to speak. If I speak I am in big trouble.”

Meanwhile, on a completely unrelated topic, here are five things more useful than UEFA and FFP:

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)