‘CAS is not up to standard’: LaLiga president Javier Tebas takes aim at the Court of Arbitration for Sport after they overturn Manchester City’s two-year Champions League ban
- Manchester City appealed against UEFA’s two-year Champions League ban
- CAS verdict was announced today and City have had their initial ban overturned
- LaLiga president Javier Tebas said CAS is ‘not up to standard’ upon hearing news
- He questioned whether CAS is ‘appropriate body’ to deal with football appeals
LaLiga president Javier Tebas has taken aim at the Court of Arbitration for Sport after they overturned Manchester City’s two-year Champions League ban on Monday.
UEFA initially handed City a European ban for breaching Financial Fair Play regulations, but City appealed to CAS and subsequently had the ban taken away.
The decision, revealed at 9:30am on Monday morning, leaves FFP rules in tatters and Tebas was quick to insist that changes need to be made at the top.
Javier Tebas has questioned whether CAS should continue dealing with football appeals
Gary Lineker asked whether UEFA could survive the decision to let Manchester City off
Speaking shortly after the announcement, he said: ‘We have to reassess whether CAS is the appropriate body to which to appeal institutional decisions in football.
‘Switzerland is a country with a great history of arbitration, CAS is not up to standard.’
In the hours after the decision was made, ‘RIP FFP’ was trending on Twitter as fans suggested UEFA’s spending restrictions are ‘dead’.
Gary Lineker was also among those giving his thoughts, as he questioned whether UEFA could even continue given the decision made by CAS.
Court of Arbitration for Sport is based in Lausanne and has dealt with many high-profile cases
CAS have been at centre of transfer wrangle between Nantes and Cardiff over Emiliano Sala
Posting on Twitter, he wrote: ‘Hard to see how UEFA’s FFP rules can survive this. In fact, can UEFA survive the ramifications?’
CAS is an international, independent, body set up in 1984 that settles disputes relating to sport through arbitration.
Its headquarters are in Lausanne, in Switzerland, and the body have dealt with a number of high-profile cases in recent years, across not only football but the world of sport as a whole.
Sir Mo Farah’s former coach Alberto Salazar is currently hoping to overturn anti-doping violations at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, while CAS have also recently dealt with Cardiff and Nantes’ row over the £15m transfer of the late Emiliano Sala.
Financial Fair Play rules are a hot topic in football at the moment, not least in Tebas’ Spanish top flight with Barcelona.
The Nou Camp giants sold Arthur Melo to Juventus in a big-money move at the end of June, a deal which kept them within FFP restrictions.
They then bought Miralem Pjanic from Juventus shortly after, effectively making it a swap deal between the two clubs.
Manchester City will be able to play in the Champions League next season after CAS’ verdict
Pep Guardiola appeared delighted in a photo posted to Instagram on Monday morning