UEFA monitoring Man City case before deciding on potential action

UEFA monitoring Man City case before deciding on potential action UEFA is monitoring Manchester City’s financial case and will wait for the Premier League disciplinary process to conclude before considering whether to take any action of its own. An independent commission found City guilty of serious financial-rule breaches covering nine seasons between 2009/10 and 2017/18, with five of the upheld charges relating to compliance with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations. Sky Sports reports European football’s governing body is following developments but does not intend to make a decision while City’s challenge against the findings remains unresolved. City lodged their appeal last Thursday and continue to deny wrongdoing, arguing that the commission’s conclusions contain significant errors of law, principle and fact. The commission found that City’s owners used what it described as “sham” commercial arrangements to disguise funding as sponsorship revenue over several years. It concluded that more than £830 million was injected through the disguised funding scheme, while City’s revenues were inflated and costs understated by more than £900m overall. UEFA’s interest is particularly significant because City have previously faced disciplinary proceedings over Financial Fair Play. The club reached a settlement with UEFA in 2014 after failing to meet the governing body’s break-even requirements, accepting financial and sporting restrictions. UEFA later confirmed in 2017 that City had fulfilled the requirements of that agreement and exited the settlement regime. A separate case resulted in City receiving a two-year ban from European competition and a €30m fine in 2020, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport subsequently overturned the suspension. CAS ruled that some of UEFA’s allegations were not established while others could not be pursued because they were time-barred, although City were fined €10m for failing to cooperate with the investigation. The latest Premier League proceedings are significant because the independent commission had access to evidence that was not available during UEFA’s earlier investigation, according to Sky Sports. There nevertheless remain questions over what action UEFA could now take because its financial regulations include limitation periods that differ from the Premier League’s rules. Any decision is therefore expected to depend on the final outcome and findings of the English disciplinary process. City’s immediate focus is their appeal, which will be heard privately by a different three-person panel. No sporting sanction has yet been imposed, and the club remain able to compete normally while their challenge progresses. UEFA will now watch that process before determining whether the findings create any separate consequences in European competition.