MANCHESTER City could still avoid a Champions League ban – despite suffering a major legal defeat.
City’s attempt to have Uefa’s Financial Fair Play case against the club thrown out was dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
City could face a Champions League banCredit: Reuters
The Etihad outfit went to Cas in June in a bid to get a ruling that Uefa’s Club Financial Control Board had acted illegally.
The Control Board’s investigatory unit, headed by former Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme, is understood to have recommended City face a European ban.
But before the case was considered by the five judges who sit on the Board’s Adjudicatory Chamber, City attempted to have the case ruled out of order.
City challenged Uefa’s right to ask for the Judges to pass sentence, claiming there was no case to answer and questioning the legitimacy and haste of the investigation.
Now that argument has been shot down – but it does NOT mean the Judges will follow the recommendation.
In a statement issued in Lausanne, Cas ruled City’s appeal was “inadmissable”.
The court added: “An appeal against the decision of a federation, association or sports-related body may be filed with CAS if the appellant has exhausted the legal remedies available to it prior to the appeal, in accordance with the statutes or regulations of that body.
“In the present case, the decision rendered by the CFCB Investigatory Chamber to refer a case to the CFCB Adjudicatory Chamber is not final and can therefore not be appealed to CAS directly.”
In other words, City had no right to appeal UNTIL the end of the Uefa process.
Leterme’s investigations unit is believed to have to have found City guilty of “cynical” and concerted attempts to deceive Uefa’s financial chiefs.
City have remained publicly and privately incandescent at the “hacked or out of context” club emails published as part of the Football Leaks document dump.
It was alleged the club had hidden millions in funding by City’s Abu Dhabi owners under the guise of legitimate sponsorship income.
The alleged breaches came despite Uefa fining City in initial £49m for FFP violations in 2014.
The Cas decision means the matter will now be decided by the Adjudicatory Chamber, with Cas confirming in their statement that a finding of guilt WAS made by Leterme’s unit on May 15.
But it is suggested that Uefa are ready to back down from the demands – including by senior figure inside the governing body – for “sporting sanctions” against City.
City have pledged to fight Uefa every step of the way if they are banned, even threatening legal cases which would question the legitimacy of the entire FFP rulebook.
When Uefa blinked under threats from Paris St Germain earlier this year, City’s resolve was intensified.
If the suggestions are correct, it seems Uefa is concerned that a prolonged and public fight with City – understood to feel that any finding of guilt would be wrong – could snare them up in ruinously-expensive legal arguments.
That, though, is a decision now in the hands of the Judges, expected to deliver their sentence in the next few weeks.
City do then have the option of going BACK to Cas to appeal the punishment, which would again mean more months of expensive legal wranglings.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
