Man City wins appeal against a two year Europe ban.

News Highlights:

– Manchester City successfully appealed their two-year Europe ban.

– CAS agree with UEFA on compliance but believe there was no case of forgery of documents.

– Therefore, the blues will pay €10 million in fine.

Manchester City have successfully appealed their two-year ban from all European club competitions.

The Premier League club had been accused of inflating the value of their sponsorship deals in order to comply with Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations that restrict the amount of money a team can spend relative to how much they make, eventually requiring clubs to break even within a specific timeframe.

As a result, UEFA – European football’s apex body – banned the club from taking part in the Champions League for the next two seasons, and fined them €30 million.

Manchester City appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), arguing that the leaked documents that sparked the investigation were deliberately taken out of context and presented in a way that made it seem like the club had something to hide.

In their ruling on Monday morning, CAS agreed with UEFA that Manchester City “did fail to cooperate with the UEFA authorities”, but ultimately “did not disguise any equity funding”.

In there statement CAS then concluded: “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 MCFC’s failure to cooperate with the CFCB’s investigations alone”.

Man City, who will now €10 million in fine, was initially given a two year Europe ban that could have seen them disqualified even if they qualify for the champions League as one of the top four clubs in England, the premier league side currently sit second on the table behind champions-elect Liverpool.