Blues have the power to fight UEFA all the way
CITY’S enormous financial power and influence will pose a significant challenge to UEFA’s decision to ban the club from the Champions League, according to a leading academic.
The Blue are to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against their punishment, which also included a fine of 30m euros (£24.9m), after an investigation into accounts submitted by the club between 2012 and 2016.
While the two-year exclusion from European competition imposed by the governing body would mean a significant loss of revenue, City have the weight of the Abu Dhabi and Chinese governments and United States private equity firm Silver Lake behind them in what will be a hotly-contested and hugelysignificant court battle.
And the future of UEFA’s whole Financial Fair Play model hinges on the success of this case, said professor Simon Chadwick, director at the Centre for the Eurasian Sport Industry.
“Many people believe at this point Manchester City are on the back foot but I could argue UEFA is more exposed in all of this,” Chadwick said.
“In essence, UEFA has to try to win this because, if it doesn’t win or is undermined in any way, then its position on Financial Fair Play begins to unravel...FFP is scuppered. However, they are not taking on Wigan, they are taking on Asian governments, US tech investors and some of the smartest, most-talented people in football.
“In many ways this is just as much, if not more so, about the vulnerabilities of UEFA as it is about the vulnerabilities of City Football Group (CFG) and Manchester City.
“It is transnational power versus localised governance. This is not Manchester City it is City Football Group.
“You have the Abu Dhabi government invested into it, you have the Chinese government invested into it, Silver Lake invested into it, and they are operating franchises across seven or eight countries including China and India.
“This is not about what’s going to happen to a football club, it is fundamentally about the power of an organisation to challenge the continental governance by a body like UEFA.”