KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTING —- Manchester City will learn their European club fate next week when the Court of Arbitration for Sport rules on the outgoing Premier League champions’ appeal against a two-year UEFA ban for breaching financial fair play rules.

Matthieu Reeb, director general of Lausanne-based CAS, said: “The final award will be made during the week of July 13.”

At the start of last month a three-man CAS panel comprising Rui Botica Santos (Portugal), Ulrich Haas (Germany) and Andrew McDougall (France) spent three days in video conference studying the case and the appeal against both a two-year suspension and €30m fine.

City have always denied overvaluing its sponsorship revenues in the 2012-2016 period and hindering the initial investigation.

Even if the ban stands City can still play on in this season’s Champions League in which they restart next month with the second leg of their second round tie against Real Madrid.

City lead 2-1 from the first leg in the Estadio Bernabeu but the return on August 7 or 8 may be played on neutral territory in Portugal where the remainder of the 2019-20 Champions League is to be played out in a short-term, short-time play-off series.

February decision

The case erupted on February 14 when the punishment was announced by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body (CFCB).

City were alleged – initially following the publication of documents by the Football Leaks hackers by German news outlet Der Spiegel– to have benefited three times over from a plan to circumvent financial fair play during the 2012-2016 period.

Firstly they allegedly broke the rules by not restricting spending in line with revenue; secondly, they used an offshore company to invest extra monies from the Abu Dhabi owners; and thirdly they exerted heavy pressure on UEFA, and then general secretary Gianni Infantino in particular, to ‘go easy’ on sanctions.

City had been bought by the Abu Dhabi United Group, an investment vehicle of the Gulf state, in 2008.

The new owners immediately threw vast sums of money at the club. They bought world-class players, paid world-class wages, contracted arguably the most successful modern manager, upgraded the already-comparatively new stadium, built a state-of-the-art training centre and invested generously in local community projects.

At that point this investment had been rewarded with Premier League success in 2012, 2014 and 2018, one FA Cup, three League Cups and the fifth-highest revenue in football at €527.7m.

But then along came financial fair play.

First breaches

In 2014 City were found guilty of breaking the rules and were punished with a fine, salary cap, transfer cap and squad size reduction.

City fans were furious. Hence they regularly jeer the Champions League anthem and have even stayed away from games. A 55,000-capacity stadium has averaged only 45,000 for group matches.

So City, both at board level and on the terraces, have no love for UEFA. Much of the fan response to the Football Leaks revelations is that Europe’s establishment fears City because it wants to protect ‘old money’ from ‘new money.’

But City’s attempt in 2019 to persuade the Court of Arbitration to halt the UEFA investigation in its tracks was dismissed. Hence the latest turn of events.

Heavy spending by foreign owners is no longer a big issue in English football.

It is more than a decade since the then Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger complained about “financial doping.” But his anger and envy had been directed at Chelsea, long before City’s explosion. City’s subsequent spending makes Roman Abramovich’s investment look like small change.

Sponsorship deals

The Football Leaks documents quoted by Der Spiegel suggest that ADUG channelled investment into the club in the guise of sponsorship deals with Abu Dhabi companies. They claim that those deals were not as big as declared, and that owner Sheikh Mansour made up the shortfall via a complex network of offshore companies.

Senior executive Simon Pearce was quoted as saying in an one email: “As we discussed, the annual direct obligation for Aabar [an investment company] is £3m. The remaining £12m will come from alternative sources provided by His Highness.”

There was also an allegation – also denied – that a City sponsor had been persuaded to pay a £5m bonus for winning the FA Cup in 2013 even though they lost the final to Wigan.

City denied any wrongdoing when the first tranche of documents were published, saying: “We will not be providing any comment on out of context materials purportedly hacked or stolen from City Football Group and Manchester City personnel and associated people. The attempt to damage the club’s reputation is organised and clear.”

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