Manchester City have been banned from the UEFA competition for the next two season after they were found in breach of Financial Fair Play (FFP) compliance process. FFP were established to prevent professional football clubs spending more than they earn in the pursuit of success and in doing so getting into financial problems which might threaten their long-term survival.
They were further fined £25m for deceiving the European football Governing body. Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) had opened their investigation on March 2019 after allegations of breach of FFP rules by German publication Del Spiegel.
The leaked emails appeared that ManCity owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan funded the huge annual sponsorship of £67.5 m. One of the leaked emails suggested that only £8m of that sponsorship in 2015-16 was funded directly by Etihad and the rest was coming from Mansour’s own company vehicle for the ownership of City, the Abu Dhabi United Group.
The league giants responded that they shall appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports “at the earliest opportunity.”
Should ManCity ban be upheld they will be set to face a two year ban (2020/2021 and 2021/2022).