June 11 – Manchester City will have to wait until July before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) issues its ruling on whether the club will have its two season ban on Champions League participation and €30 million fined lifted.
The CAS hearing began Monday and completed yesterday (Wednesday afternoon) with CAS saying it “was conducted by video-conference, with participants in Lausanne and London, and expert witnesses in various countries, in accordance with the schedule planned. At the end of the hearing, both parties expressed their satisfaction with respect to the conduct of the procedure.”
The arbitration panel – Rui Botica Santos (Portugal), president, Prof. Ulrich Haas (Germany) and Andrew McDougall QC (France) – is expected to issue a decision “during the first half of July 2020. The exact date will be communicated in advance.”
If Manchester City lose their appeal at CAS the decision could cost them an estimated £200 million.
The club were banned by UEFA in February for “serious breaches” and have been accused of deceiving UEFA in order to comply with the regulations. Announcing its verdict four months ago, UEFA said the Abu Dhabi-owned club was guilty of “overstating its sponsorship revenue in its accounts and in the break-even information submitted to UEFA between 2012 and 2016.”
UEFA’s Adjudicatory Chamber also said City had “failed to cooperate in the investigation of this case”.
City’s chief executive Ferran Soriano has denounced the allegations as totally untrue.
“We provided the evidence but in the end this FFP Investigatory Chamber relied more on out of context stolen emails than all the other evidence we provided of what actually happened and I think it is normal that we feel like we feel,” he said in February. “Ultimately based on our experience and our perception this seems to be less about justice and more about politics.”
The knock-on effect for the Premier League if man City lose their appeal is that the team who finishes fifth this season, currently Manchester United, would take City’s place in next season’s Champions League.
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