Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
We knew this was coming... it’s just another milestone in the quest to clear our name
MANCHESTER CITY have been bracing themselves for a showdown with UEFA for the last nine months.
And the defiant message from the Etihad Stadium last night is that their fight to overturn a Champions League ban will one day be regarded as a significant milestone in Sheikh Mansour’s dream of turning the club into a global football force.
“This isn’t Armageddon,” was how a senior boardroom source at the club described UEFA’s decision to hand down a two-year European ban and a £25million fine for City’s failure to comply with Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.
City remain steadfast in their belief that they will win their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
And the club’s Abu Dhabi owners – and their Chinese and American partners – are also refusing to rule out the prospect of taking their case to the civil courts.
But while the Champions League ban would cost City a staggering £200m in TV and prize money alone, if upheld, the belief in east Manchester and Abu Dhabi is that the Premier League champions are fighting against an unjust
UEFA crusade that’s driven by politics rather than evidence.
City say they knew that
European football’s governing body would play the role of judge, jury and executioner from the moment chief financial investigator Yves Leterme ruled they had a case to answer last May.
The club source said: “We pretty much knew what the outcome would be from the moment we were referred to UEFA’s Adjudicatory Chamber. It was a fait accompli once it became clear that Mr Leterme was only interested in one side of the story.
“That’s why our stance is that this is just another milestone in our quest to clear the name of the club. We remain convinced that when we put our evidence before the CAS we will see this decision overturned.
“We welcome the prospect of hearing UEFA’s reasons for making their decision and our response heard by an independent body.”
City have two weeks to lodge their appeal but it remains to be seen whether the CAS is able to sit in judgement before the start of next season. “We have no preference as to when the matter is heard,” added the source. “The only thing we have asked for is that Manchester City are given a fair hearing.”
Pep Guardiola and his squad were informed of UEFA’s decision just hours before the judgement was made public. It is claimed that the club falsely inflated money generated by sponsorship deals between 2012 and 2016.
They were fined £49m by UEFA six years ago for FFP violations – although £32m was subsequently paid back.
But a series of hacked emails published by German magazine Der Spiegel in November 2018 sparked another investigation.
That inquiry has complicated the club’s plans to open talks with Guardiola about the prospect of him signing a new contract.
And while the increasing threat of a ban means it is likely that the Catalan will keep his options open about extending his stay in Manchester beyond five years, there is a belief he will NOT walk away in the summer.
City also face the task of convincing star players like Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero to trust in their assurances that they will beat any ban.
But what is certain is that Guardiola’s plans to overhaul his squad at the end of the season have been made much tougher by UEFA’s swingeing punishment.
There is, however, no prospect of owner Sheikh Mansour (below) cashing in on an investment which has seen him spend more than £1billion transforming City into the Premier League’s most dominant team over the last decade.
A 13 per cent stake in the City Football Group that owns the Blues, as well as clubs in China, Japan, India, Australia, Spain, Uruguay and the United States, was sold to China Media Capital in 2015.
And another 10 per cent share was bought by giant American equity firm Silver Lake Partners for £389m last November.
City Football Group chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak made it clear at the time that Mansour would not be taking a single penny from the transaction. And the City source insisted: “The aim of Sheikh Mansour in 2009 was to make Manchester City the best club in the Premier League.
“Does he want to win the Champions League? Of course, because that’s an achievement that puts you into a Hall of Fame only occupied by an elite group of clubs.
“But the suggestion that we would have swapped last season’s Treble to win the Champions League simply isn’t true.
“Losing revenue from the Champions League would be a huge blow, no doubt, but Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham have all failed to qualify for the tournament without it being ruinous.
“The bottom line is that City are currently in a much stronger position financially than most of those clubs.”