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CAS lifts Man City's UEFA FFP ban, but questions remain as to why and how it got this far

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The main takeaway might be that Man City will play in next season’s Champions League, but there is plenty more to unpack from Monday’s court ruling.
On Monday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned a two-year ban from European football and €30 million fine that were imposed upon Manchester City for breaching UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations and failing to cooperate with an investigation by the governing body of European football’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB). City will instead be fined €10m for failure to cooperate, but they will be free to play in UEFA competitions.
We do not know exactly why the ban was overturned — that will become more clear in the next few days when CAS publishes its full written award — but the statement released alluded to the fact that some alleged breaches were “not established” and others were “time-barred.”
What does it all mean? For example, is it accurate to say that City have been exonerated? And is this the end of FFP? Let’s start at the beginning.
– Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U. S. only)- Marcotti: Man City targeting silverware- Gab & Juls podcast: Is FFP finished?
– ICYMI: Latest from Europe’s top leagues
What exactly were Man City accused of doing?
They breached FFP rules — legislation that limits the losses a club can sustain over a certain period — in 2014 and were punished, reaching a settlement agreement with UEFA. However, the case was reopened following the November 2018 “Football Leaks” revelations published in the German magazine Der Spiegel.
Among other things, “Football Leaks” documents alleged that City’s owners, the Abu Dhabi United Group, did not just get related parties, such as the airline Etihad, to sign inflated sponsorship deals — which the original 2014 investigation already established — but they routed money to said parties and then received that cash back as “sponsorship,” effectively cooking the books.
Does Monday’s judgement exonerate them?
Read all the latest news and reaction from ESPN FC senior writer Gabriele Marcotti.
It means they will not be banned from European competition; it does not mean they did not do anything wrong. The wording of CAS’s release says some breaches were “not established” while others were “time-barred” which suggests the statute of limitations — five years according to Article 37 of the 2019 edition of the procedural rules governing the CFCB — might have applied.
City signed their settlement agreement on May 16, 2014; UEFA’s formal investigation was launched on March 7, 2019, and referred to the independent adjudicatory chamber of the CFCB on May 16, 2019.

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