Manchester City’s fierce hostility to Uefa’s investigation into the club’s alleged breaches of financial fair play regulations has been laid bare in court documents, which show City sought financial damages from Uefa for alleged leaks of the process to the media.
The furious case mounted by City is detailed in written reasons issued by the court of arbitration for sport for its decision in November to dismiss City’s case. The club had appealed against the decision by the “investigatory chamber” (IC) of Uefa’s club financial control body to charge City with breaches of FFP, and refer the case to the control body’s “adjudicatory chamber” (AC). The IC’s investigation followed publication of internal City emails by the German magazine Der Spiegel which suggested the club had deceived Uefa in their financial submissions, principally because City’s owner, Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi, was funding the club’s sponsorship by the state’s airline, Etihad.
City deny any wrongdoing and appealed to Cas against the referral by the IC itself, arguing that it was made “improperly and prematurely”, that it “lacked procedural fairness and due process”, and did not treat City equally with other European clubs. City also protested about the leaking in advance of the IC’s intended decision to charge the club, and subsequent media reports, alleging: “Uefa has systematically breached, and continues to breach, its duty of confidence.”
The ferocity of City’s accusations against Uefa drew an emphatic response from Yves Leterme, the IC chair, who wrote on 20 May: “I must vehemently reject your allegations of unlawful activities, either by myself or by any of the members of the Uefa CFCB, in particular of its investigatory chamber. Y our allegations are groundless in the merits and unacceptable in tone. Please be advised that I will not continue such an exchange of correspondence and that I will not respond further to groundless accusations directed against me personally and/or against my fellow members of the IC.”
Cas refused City’s appeal against the referral, ruling that an appeal cannot be made until a final decision by a governing body, and City could make all their arguments at the hearing before the adjudicatory chamber.
However the Cas panel of three lawyers described the media leaks as “worrisome” and questioned how Leterme “could be so confident” that they had not come from the CFCB. They ruled that even if a CFCB member had been responsible for a leak, that did not mean they had not been impartial when reaching the decision to charge City.
The AC was understood to have heard the charges last month, and a decision is awaited. If it finds City guilty of deceiving Uefa over its finances it has the power to ban them from the Champions League, as recommended by the IC.