Manchester City banned from UEFA competitions for next two seasons

February 15, 2020 Contributing Editor European Leagues, Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League
Manchester City banned from UEFA competitions for next two seasons
Manchester City banned from UEFA competitions for next two seasons

Manchester City have been banned from the all UEFA competitions, including Champions League and Europa Cup, for the next two seasons by Uefa and fined €30m after UEFA found City to have misled UEFA and broken financial fair play(FFP) rules.

The severity of the ban and the amount of the fine reflect how seriously Uefa’s FFP compliance bodies consider the club to have breached the rules and regulations.

City responded immediately issued a statement, alleging prejudice and vowed to immediately appeal to the court of arbitration for sport (CAS).

There were citing of alleged inflation in sponsorship revenues, when they made submissions of financials for FFP compliance process. It is widely believed that UEFA ruled on the basis of “leaked” emails and documents by the German magazine Der Spiegel in November 2018.

Manchester City alleged in a statement that the process was prejudged from the beginning, “Simply put, this is a case initiated by UEFA, prosecuted by UEFA and judged by UEFA. With this prejudicial process now over, the club will pursue an impartial judgment as quickly as possible and will therefore, in the first instance, commence proceedings with the Court of Arbitration for Sport at the earliest opportunity.” When City were charged last May, they said that they had been subjected to a “hostile” process which ignored “a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence”.

The club has always anticipated the ultimate need to seek out an independent body and process to impartially consider the comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence in support of its position

MANCHESTER CITY – STATEMENT

The Adjudicatory Chamber, having considered all the evidence, has found that Manchester City committed serious breaches of the Uefa Financial Fair Play Regulations by overstating its sponsorship revenue in its accounts and in the break-even information submitted to Uefa between 2012 and 2016

UEFA STATEMENT
Financial Fair Play or FFP, introduced in 2011 for encouraging European football clubs not to overspend on players’ wages and to restrict the amount club owners can put in to cover losses. On the other hand, Sponsorships boost revenues as well as the amount clubs have can spend (under FFP).

City have denied wrongdoing throughout and denounced the Spiegel coverage as based on “hacked or stolen” materials taken out of context. Shortly after their publication, a Portuguese national, Rui Pinto, was identified as the person and has now been charged in Portugal with 147 criminal offences related only to Portuguese football clubs and other organisations.

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