The lifting of Manchester City’s Champions League ban has huge implications for soccer

Manchester City are clear to play in the Champions League next season, after the two-year ban handed down by UEFA in February was lifted by an independent panel on the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

City stood accused of inflating the annual sponsorship of their shirt from £8m up to £67.5m based on info obtained from leaked emails. CAS said the breachers were either not established or “time barred,” and imposed a €10m fine for failing to comply with UEFA investigations.

It’s a huge victory for City, who will now be able to play in next season’s Champions League. They will also be able to retain manager Pep Guardiola, and star players such as Kevin De Bruyne, who has previously expressed he would reconsider his future if the ban was upheld.

It will also have a big effect on the Premier League table—as fifth place is no longer good for Champions League qualification, and seventh is no longer good for Europa League qualification.

So the likes of Manchester United, Leicester and Sheffield United have plenty to play for in their remaining games.

Perhaps more importantly, the ruling has massive implications for the integrity of UEFA and its rules. It is difficult to imagine Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules surviving intact, as City’s absolution makes a mockery of those rules. Now that City have escaped with minimal punishment, it appears that the floodgates are open for other clubs to engage in “financial doping.”

However, the death of FFP might not be a bad thing. The rules are intended to stop clubs spending behind their means and to make them sustainable—but they are inconsistently applied and completely unenforceable.

Paris Saint-Germain, for example, are owned by the Qatari ruling family and were found to have “overstated” their shirt sponsorship deal with an airline owned by the Qatari state. And Juventus are paid $100m a year to have Jeep on their shirts—but Jeep are owned by the same family who own Juventus.

Both these sponsorship deals are similar to City’s, but neither have been banned.

FFP stifles major investment into rising clubs, while UEFA do little to punish elite teams who go into debt. Man Utd and Barcelona both carry nine-figure debts, which makes them appear less sustainable than City, who have zero debt.

City’s victory may appear to be an uncomfortable victory for massive foreign investment over sporting integrity, but it merely highlights the fact that soccer can never be a level playing field, and that UEFA’s rules need addressing.

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