[James]

By the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Top four will qualify for the Champions League now.

Manchester City overturn two-year ban from European competition on appeal to Cas
6 minutes ago
Manchester City have successfully overturned their two-year ban from European club competitions.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) announced the club were cleared of "disguising equity funds as sponsorship contributions".

Uefa issued the ban in February after ruling City had committed "serious breaches" of Financial Fair Play regulations between 2012 and 2016.

City's fine has been cut from 30m euros (£26.9m) to 10m euros.

In delivering the ruling on Monday, Cas said City did "fail to cooperate with Uefa authorities" but overturned the decision by Uefa's club financial control body (CFCB) to ban them.

City said the decision was "validation of the club's position and the body of evidence that it was able to present".

"The club wishes to thank the panel members for their diligence and the due process that they administered," City added.

Cas' ruling means City, who are guaranteed to finish second in the Premier League this season, will play in the 2020-21 Champions League.

In this year's competition, Pep Guardiola's side face Real Madrid in their last-16 second leg at Etihad Stadium on 7 August. They lead 2-1 from the first leg and will face Juventus or Lyon if they progress.

The Cas statement continued: "The award emphasised 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 Manchester City's failure to co-operate with the CFCB's investigations alone."

On reducing the fine, Cas said that, while it considered "the importance of the co-operation of clubs in investigations conducted by the CFCB" and Manchester City's "disregard of such principle and its obstruction of the investigations", the Cas panel "considered it appropriate to reduce Uefa's initial fine by two-thirds".

It added: "The final award with reasons will be published on the Cas website in a few days."

Uefa said it noted the decision and added: "Over the last few years, Financial Fair Play has played a significant role in protecting clubs and helping them become financially sustainable and Uefa and European Club Association remain committed to its principles."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53387306

[joeysteele]

I'm no fan at all of Man City but I'm glad this ruling has been made.

[AnnieK]

Urgh....damn lol.

Although to be fair most ardent die hard Reds I know said they were sure it wouldn't be upheld so it's no real surprise.

[Denver]

I wonder how much it cost the owners

[Cherie]

No surprise there at all

[Shaun]

$$$

Originally Posted by AnnieK

Urgh....damn lol.

Although to be fair most ardent die hard Reds I know said they were sure it wouldn't be upheld so it's no real surprise.

You'll probably still snatch 4th from Chelsea tbf, maybe even 3rd from Leicester too

[bitontheslide]

its the right outcome, uefa and the german press were up to no good

[The Slim Reaper]

Completely the wrong outcome. It was pretty blatant what they did, so this is the end of FFP. City can now do and spend what they like, so we've lost a competitive league now.

[bitontheslide]

there has been big money in football for a while, leicester still managed to win ... i think the arguments for having FFP just don't hold up under scrutiny

[The Slim Reaper]

It's a bit different when one club has access to the cash of a sovereign wealth fund. They could afford to spend £1 billion every single transfer window without it making a dent in their cash. That goes a bit beyond clubs that earn lots of money, spending it. United had a few dud transfer windows, and some dud managers and they fell, that is not the case with city. United didn't have billions to replace Mata and Sanchez.

Using Leicester is always weird, because the fact they did it shows it's not even a generational achievement, it's truly historical.

[Denver]

man City cheat there way by having their owner make businesses up solely to send money to make it look like sponsorships

[LeatherTrumpet]

Money talks.

[bitontheslide]

paris saint germain have had bucket loads of cash thrown at them for many years, and it hasn't made them successful in europe

[The Slim Reaper]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

paris saint germain have had bucket loads of cash thrown at them for many years, and it hasn't made them successful in europe

What does that have to do with anything?

That league is an uncompetitive farce.

[bitontheslide]

Originally Posted by The Slim Reaper

What does that have to do with anything?

That league is an uncompetitive farce.

it shows that money doesn't buy success, i would have thought that would be obvious to everyone by now

[The Slim Reaper]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

it shows that money doesn't buy success, i would have thought that would be obvious to everyone by now

It shows the opposite. Money has turned that league into a mess. The CL is different because it's the best teams in europe, and there will always be more than 25 great players in the world.

It's also disingenuous to throw up the french league as a comparison with the PL.

[Black Dagger]

Lmao at the closet lawyers on here. Hard luck guys xx

[Mystic Mock]

Originally Posted by The Slim Reaper

Completely the wrong outcome. It was pretty blatant what they did, so this is the end of FFP. City can now do and spend what they like, so we've lost a competitive league now.

Well I personally don't get how us, Macclesfield, and Sheffield Wednesday have either been punished or soon to be punished in Wednesday's case for breaching FFP rules but Man City haven't?

I know that there are different circumstances with each club, but it does make a mockery when the same core offence is yielding different punishments.

I am happy for Man City fans though as it's never nice to see your club go through stuff like this.

[Brother Leon]

UEFA are a complete joke anyway. Complete flop trying to make an example.