By Adegboyega Adeleye
UEFA is monitoring Manchester City’s financial-rule case and will wait until the end of the Premier League’s disciplinary process before considering any potential action against Manchester City, Sky Sports reports.
Manchester City were found guilty by an independent commission of serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules between 2009 and 2018, including five charges relating to breaches of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules.
City have appealed the verdict and continue to deny any wrongdoing, insisting that they have a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence” to support their position.
According to Sky Sports chief correspondent Kaveh Solhekol, UEFA is monitoring developments and will wait until the Premier League disciplinary process is completed before deciding whether to take any potential action against City.
The independent commission found that City’s owners had put £830 million into the club, which was disguised as sponsorship income over nine seasons.
The commission also found City significantly breached both Premier League and UEFA spending limits and broke “well over 100” Premier League regulations.
UEFA previously took action against City over Financial Fair Play breaches.
In 2014, the club agreed a settlement with UEFA which included a £49 million fine, of which £32 million was suspended.
In 2020, UEFA found City guilty of breaching its Financial Fair Play rules, imposing a €30 million fine and a two-year ban from European competitions.
City appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which overturned the European competition ban, ruling that UEFA had not established that the club’s owners had disguised equity funding as sponsorship contributions. Other alleged breaches were found to be time-barred.
CAS subsequently reduced the fine to €10 million for City’s failure to cooperate with UEFA’s investigation.
UEFA’s statute of limitations for financial-rule breaches is five years, while the Premier League has no such limitation, according to Sky Sports.
The Premier League’s independent commission, which had access to evidence unavailable to UEFA during its investigation, found City guilty of serious financial breaches spanning nine seasons.
City lodged its appeal on October 1 and maintains that the commission’s decision contains “clear material errors, of law, principle and fact” and is “unsafe.”
Under the Premier League’s new appeal rules, the process is expected to be concluded within 12 weeks, although City could argue that the new rules should not apply because the case began before they were introduced.
Sky Sports reports that such an argument could potentially push the appeal process into 2027.
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