Manchester City’s UEFA ban may be FROZEN while CAS oversee their appeal but Premier League champions would prefer to know their fate by summer
- Manchester City can attempt to have their two-year ban from Europe frozen
- They can ask to have the suspension halted while CAS hears their appeal
- City chief Ferran Soriano insisted the Premier League champions are innocent
Manchester City can apply to freeze their two-year Champions League ban – but prefer a resolution before the summer.
Sports lawyers revealed on Wednesday that City can ask to have the suspension halted while the Court of Arbitration for Sport hears their appeal.
Chief executive Ferran Soriano maintained that the Premier League champions are innocent following UEFA’s punishment and wants their name cleared before next season.
Manchester City can apply to freeze their two-year Champions League ban while they appeal
‘The allegations are not true. They are simply not true,’ Soriano said. ‘My best hope is that this will be finished before the beginning of the summer..’
Leading Sports Law Barrister, John Mehrzad, predicted that ‘it is very likely indeed, practically certain, that City will seek “provisional measures” from the CAS’.
The Champions League expulsion also came with a £25million fine after accusations of ‘serious breaches’ of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations between 2012-16.
Soriano added: ‘The owner has not put money in this club that has not been properly declared. We are a sustainable football club, we are profitable, we don’t have debt, our accounts have been scrutinised many times, by auditors, by regulators, by investors and this is perfectly clear.’