Manchester City have been banned from all UEFA competitions for the next two seasons and fined £24.9m for "serious breaches" of Financial Fair Play regulations.

THE PROBLEM
According to theguardian.com, "City were found guilty by Uefa’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) of having falsely inflated their sponsorship revenues, when they made submissions for the FFP compliance process. The guilty finding follows an investigation sparked by the publication of “leaked” emails and documents by the German magazine Der Spiegel in November 2018."

From the “leaked” emails and documents, City’s owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the Abu Dhabi ruling family, majorly funds the £67.5m annual sponsorship of the City shirt, stadium and academy by his country’s airline, Etihad. 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 RULE
FFP, introduced in 2011 with the aim of encouraging football clubs across Europe not to overspend on players’ wages, restricts the amount club owners can put in to cover losses. Sponsorships boost revenues and therefore the amount that clubs have to spend under FFP, so the perception that Mansour himself was in fact funding the Etihad deal led to the serious allegation that City had deceived Uefa’s CFCB, which is responsible for ensuring compliance with FFP (theguardian.com).

CITY PERSPECTIVE
City have vehemently denied wrongdoing throughout, and denounced the Spiegel coverage as based on “leaked or stolen” materials taken out of context. Spiegel anonymised their source as “John”, who was quoted saying that he had not hacked computers to obtain the emails. Shortly after their publication, he was identified as a Portuguese national, Rui Pinto, who has now been charged in Portugal with 147 criminal offences, including hacking and other cybercrimes, which he denies. The charges relate only to Portuguese football clubs and other organisations, not to the “leaks” of City’s or Uefa’s emails.
When City were charged last May, the club vehemently denied any wrongdoing, saying that they had been subjected to a “hostile” process which ignored “a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence”. City are considered certain to appeal against Uefa’s verdict to the court of arbitration for sport (theguardian.com).

Meanwhile, Manchester City have said they are "disappointed but not surprised" by the announcement and will appeal (bbc.com)

If this ban stands, 5th placed in the final English league standings will progress to the top prized tornament. This only makes the race to make 5th as important as it has ever been.

Ref:
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11679/11934152/manchester-city-banned-from-all-uefa-competitions-for-next-two-seasons
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/51510284
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/feb/14/manchester-city-banned-from-champions-league-two-seasons-ffp-uefa

Photo credit: Skysports.com, givemesport.com

I was here before this hit the front page...

this is good news.

So bad for Mancity.

Lol

Will the 5th place team take their place

This is serious

This punishment is harsh. A transfer ban would have been better but hey, the law is the law