UEFA monitors Man City case, eyes action after PL verdict — SkimNews
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- UEFA is monitoring the Premier League's disciplinary process against Manchester City and will wait until it concludes before deciding whether to take its own action.
- An independent commission found City guilty of more than 100 Premier League charges and five UEFA Financial Fair Play violations covering 2009–2018, concluding the club's owners disguised £830m of their own money as sponsorship income for nine seasons.
- Manchester City lodged an appeal on 2 October and maintain they have a "comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence" to clear their name, accusing the Premier League of failing to behave as "an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator."
- The Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned a separate two-year UEFA European ban on City in 2020 and reduced a €30m fine to €10m, ruling most alleged breaches were "either not established or time barred" — a precedent City could invoke again.
- UEFA's five-year statute of limitations for financial breaches — which the Premier League does not share — is the structural reason UEFA's own 2014 and 2020 cases couldn't cover the 2009–2018 conduct at the heart of the PL verdict.
- City's lawyers are expected to argue on appeal that extra sponsorship funding came from the Abu Dhabi government rather than club owners — the same defence the original commission rejected as "an explanation that the club had concocted well after the event."
- Premier League rules introduced this season require the appeal to finish within 12 weeks, but City may argue those speeded-up rules shouldn't apply since charges were filed in 2023 and the hearing ran in 2024 — potentially pushing resolution into 2027.
Why it matters: UEFA's five-year statute of limitations expired for the 2009–2018 conduct, so any UEFA action depends on evidence from the Premier League's case — which accessed documents UEFA never had when it lost at CAS in 2020. If City's appeal succeeds, UEFA loses its strongest basis for action. The 12-week appeal clock versus City's potential challenge to those new speeded-up rules means any UEFA response could slip well into 2027, and the club's argument that Abu Dhabi state funds — not owner equity — funded sponsorships could reframe the ownership question entirely.
Ask SkimNews
