Man City banned from Champions League for two seasons

UEFA have announced that Man City have been banned from the Champions League for two seasons after being found guilty of financial irregularities and obstructing the subsequent investigation. Full details of UEFA’s decision, and the reason’s why, are being withheld as City may pursue an appeal through the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

UEFA have stated that Man City “committed serious breaches of the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations by overstating its sponsorship revenue in its accounts and in the break-even information submitted to UEFA between 2012 and 2016”.

Man City have said that they will appeal the decision and given the glacial pace of the court system could participate in the Champions League next season while the appeal is ongoing.

Ramifications of this ban are just now being discussed, however. If City are banned and finish top 4, the 5th place team would win the Champions League spot.

This is a huge blow to the City brand and if the ban stands Pep Guardiola’s position at Man City must be thrown into doubt. His goals are to win both the League and the Champions League and without Champions League football to look foward to he may move on to another challenger.

Teams who missed out on Champions League football during the seasons in question could possibly sue Man City for damages. This is not without precedent. Sheffield United successfully reached a settlement with West Ham for £18m in damages after the Hammers were found guilty of third-party ownership in Carlos Tevez. Tevez helped keep West Ham in the Premier League at the expense of Sheffield United.

Despite finishing 5th or 6th in each of the last three seasons Arsenal wouldn’t be a party to any such lawsuit since the time in question was from 2012 to 2016. Clubs who could benefit from legal action (finishing 5th) would be:

  • Newcastle (2012)
  • Tottenham (2013)
  • Everton (2014)
  • Tottenham (2015)
  • Man U (2016)

Personal thoughts:

I think this shows real character by UEFA and hope that they pursue more action based on the financial results from the last four years as well. I also wonder what will happen to some of City’s most valuable assets if they are suddenly not able to play in the Champions League? It seems unlikely to hit too hard because they pay so much money in salary that other teams could barely afford their players but there could be a few key sales due to player pressure and maybe even some vague attempt by City to pretend for a while to balance the books.

I don’t think Guardiola will stay if they are successfully banned. He won’t want to “waste” years at a club with no hope of winning him his most prized trophy. In addition, if City do have to curtail their spending he wouldn’t be able to just buy any player he wants which means he would either have to coach players to be better or suffer players like John Stones*.

Qq

*I like John Stones, I mean that in the sense that Guardiola clearly doesn’t like Stones and would have to suffer through having him on his team.

21 comments

  1. Well, I’m sure it’s true, but I also think it’s highly likely this will get significantly reduced or thrown out on appeal.

  2. Posted this before this made it’s own headline.

    $h*tTy will appeal to ca$$ and will get a pay increase!

  3. Am I having a senior moment here with the Wolves disallowed goal today?
    Off-side from a short corner?
    Why is the player who took the corner on the wrong side of the imaginary off-side line?
    I’m taking some mild anti cold meds.
    Could that be it?

    1. I haven’t actually seen this, but according to the Guardian report he (Neto) became offside by his heel after receiving the ball back in a short corner exchange routine. Mike Dean again!

  4. could liverpool sue for not winning the premiership last year?
    why don’t UEFA strip any titles or cup wins away from man city if they were financially doped?
    if they seriously think they did wrong they should be deleated from history.

  5. Thanks for the post Tim. Top class as always.

    It will be interesting to see if this ban holds up after the appeals process. Pep’s history is he does not stay in any one place for more then a few years. He left what many would consider the best managing job in the world at Barcelona with arguably the best player of our generation at the height of his powers. He left Bayern when they had much less competition then in the PL and they were almost guaranteed a yearly league title and the talent and money to go deep in the CL every year. It was probably about time for him to move again and this only increases the chances. PSG seems like an ideal situation for his next job.

  6. Unfortunately the ban will probably be reduced, maybe overturned completely.Rich mans justice – the lawyers are salivating right now.
    If they get away with just a fine,FFP will be dead, and it never had much life in the first place.
    A penny for Mikel’s thoughts (no pun intended)

  7. Chaps go to arseblog today’s post from Andrew has the full report from The Guardian. City do not have a leg to stand on. Banged to rights. Guilty as charged. We do indeed live in interesting timed

    1. That Guardian story beggars belief. City’s internal emails were leaked illegally, so their argument is that therefore they don’t exist. A two year CL ban is a fitting punishment. I couldn’t be happier that this is happening.

      From an Arsenal perspective, the ban means a much more realistic chance of CL qualification. The 5th place team will be in line for it!

  8. Great post. I’d like to think this all happened because our Arsene is now at FIFA and he was such an early proponent of FFP. This investigation was well underway prior to his arrival of course I don’t think his role in football development has anything to do with financial policing of European clubs but I’m sure a certain elegant Frenchman is smiling wryly at this turn of affairs.

    Like Limey above, the pessimist in me wants to think that they’ll win or reduce their sentence at arbitration but I agree with Tony above as well. If it walks like a duck, etc. Let’s hope and perhaps PSG will be next.

  9. interesting morning. scum: no harry kane, no problem. they just keep winning without him, just like last year; makes me wanna throw up.

    eddie get’s the nod today. not sure how i feel about that. in fairness, mikey says he’s been training well so he get’s in the side ahead of laca, who’s the far better center forward; it’s a meritocracy with mikey so that’s good. regardless, if arsenal have a better performance from the #8 (ceballos today) allowing mesut to stay higher, it’ll be alright. i’m not the biggest lacazette fan but he’s still arsenal’s best option at center forward so i try and support him. we’ll see how today goes.

  10. How good was Nicolas Pepe today? Has he played better for us? Newcastle were dire second half, mind you.

  11. Credit to Mustafi, Cebellos and Saka too. Bellerin given the runaround a bit hoping he hasn’t lost his pace with the injury.
    Cannot believe the bookings per fouls we did compared to the Geordies.. onwards and upwards.

  12. For the first 20 minutes, I was worried. Very worried. The press was discombobulated. Ozil wasn’t showing for the ball. There was nobody who could actually tackle. They were winning set piece after set piece. We weren’t even getting close to their goal. Saint-Maximine and Almiron were allowed to stretch their legs and run at our defenders (and they are both terrifyingly quick). Our forwards each looked isolated and outnumbered. Xhaka had picked up his customary booking within 10 minutes. It was dire.

    Then around 25 minutes, something clicked. I’m not totally sure what it was. Maybe Newcastle lost their legs a bit and that opened things up. Maybe we woke up a little from our Dubai holiday. It started slowly with two shots from distance by Saka. Ozil started getting touches on the ball and set up a few half chances. By the end of the half, we were largely in control of the match but it didn’t feel secure.

    The second half was a demolition derby the likes of which I haven’t seen an Arsenal side display all season and not since the 5-1 at Fulham last season. We were tentative at first but the chances came one after another and eventually Pepe found Aubameyang on the far post with a slow, looping cross I was sure would be cleared. What I didn’t see right away was that Auba not only had the height against his maker, wing-back Valentino Lazaro, but also was somehow goal side of him. He had all the space he needed to nod a perfect “center forward’s header” back across goal and down into the far corner. The second goal was man of the match Bukayo Saka’s piece de resistance, a nutmeg beating two defenders (one of which was the hapless Lazaro again) all ends up and his center found one of three Arsenal players unmarked, with the goal starved Pepe happily gobbling up the glory with an easy one time finish on his left foot. Ozil and Lacazette added the gloss in injury time, with Laca’s goal hilariously hitting his standing leg before looping in to the goal. Doesn’t matter how they go in when you need one like he did!!

    Overall, this was a confusing performance with a terrible start and an awesome finish. The clean sheet is welcome too though Newcastle probably were good for at least one goal with what they created. Hopefully this performance will be a morale boost and further affirmation for the players of Arteta and his methods that will raise the belief and the level of play. I’m still waiting for Arsenal to put a 90 minute performance together.

  13. Great second half of football today. We have been in terrible form all season and it’s time for a run of good form. Let’s see if we can build on this.

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