UEFA chief slams Manchester City’s ‘unacceptable’ claims of a leak as part of Financial Fair Play investigation which led to two-year ban from the Champions League
UEFA’s chief investigator Yves Leterme refused to communicate with Manchester City, saying the club’s exchanges were ‘unacceptable in tone’ after they accused the body of being behind leaks which City say should have halted the investigation into their fair pay breaches.
The exchanges were revealed after the publication of the Court of Arbitration’s ruling that the case against City should proceed despite the club’s objection.
City had claimed that leaks predicting the referral of the case from the Club Financial Control Body Investigatory Chamber to the Adjudicatory Chamber meant the case should be halted.
Manchester City’s claims of a leak have been called out by UEFA as ‘unacceptable in tone’
City wrote to the CFCB to protest but Leterme wrote back: ‘I must vehemently reject your allegations of unlawful activities, either by myself or by any of the members of the Uefa CFCB… Your allegations are groundless and unacceptable in tone.’
City also cited an interview Leterme gave to magazine Sport & Strategy in 2018, shortly after the hacked emails had been published by German magazine Der Spiegel.
‘If it is true what has been written, there might be a serious problem,’ said Leterme. ‘This can lead to the heaviest punishment: exclusion from the Uefa competitions.’
It seems unlikely that those comments alone would be enough to convince an arbitrator that the entire case had been prejudged.
UEFA’s chief investigator has responded revealing he refused to communicate with the club