The threat facing Manchester City is no longer just a domestic one. UEFA is tracking the club’s appeal against last month’s guilty verdict closely, and could open its own case if the ruling is upheld. That would bring Europe’s governing body back into a dispute it once lost at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
An independent commission appointed by the Premier League found City guilty of 114 of 115 financial breaches on 29 September, concluding that the club had used sham sponsorship contracts to inflate revenue by more than £900m across the 2009-10 to 2017-18 seasons.
Five charges that reach into Nyon
Five of those breaches relate specifically to City’s obligations under UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules, according to Sky Sports’ chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol. UEFA has signalled it will not move unilaterally while City’s domestic appeal is live. If the Premier League conviction survives, Nyon is expected to decide whether to launch its own investigation, with possible outcomes including fines or restrictions on City’s participation in European competition.
The club lodged a formal appeal on 1 October, the day after the commission’s decision was published. Under the Premier League’s own handbook, the appeal must conclude within 12 weeks of filing, giving a deadline of 24 December. The Appeal Board, a three-person panel chaired by someone who has held judicial office, then has 30 days to deliver its verdict.
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The hearing is private, and any decision stays confidential until publication is permitted. A separate sanctions hearing will follow if the guilty verdict is upheld. No date has been fixed for that, and no punishment has been decided.
Why 2020 does not settle anything
UEFA’s interest in the case is not academic. In February 2020 it banned City from the Champions League for two seasons and fined the club €30m for FFP violations covering some of the same period. The Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned the ban five months later, ruling that most of the alleged offences were time-barred under UEFA’s own statute, and reduced the fine to €10m.
The Premier League has no equivalent time limitation written into its rules. That is one of the reasons the current case has produced such different findings on allegations that, in some instances, overlap with the ones UEFA brought six years ago. If UEFA were to open a fresh case on the back of a confirmed Premier League verdict, it would be doing so on a different evidentiary record and under rules that have since been rewritten.
City continue to maintain they are innocent of the Premier League charges, calling the ruling one that contains “clear material errors” and saying the club has “irrefutable evidence” to support its defence.
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The appeal hearing must conclude by 24 December under the current timetable, with the Appeal Board’s written decision due within 30 days of that.
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