EI Manchester City Today begins his most important game of the season. It will be without an audience, but also without a ball. At the Swiss headquarters of the TAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport), citizens will defend their recourse to two-year UEFA punishment without being able to participate in European competitions for not complying with the financial 'fair play' in the balance sheets from 2012 to 2016 and for “not cooperating with the investigation”. After having exhausted all the instances within the maximum European organism, it is the last route that you have left.
City's response to the sanction was harsh. It's a statement, Ferrán Soriano, CEO of the City Football Group, assured that “the allegations are false” and that they will demonstrate it with “irrefutable evidence” to defend the case.
The Manchester club has launched a whole defensive arsenal against the accusations of alleged capital injections made illegally, since it was lying in the amounts generated by advertising contracts, with values 10 times above the market, thanks to the economic muscle that has brought the Abu Dhabi government, with Sheikh Mansour at the helm.
Aleksander Ceferin, President of UEFA, has been saying for months that no one can break the rules and this decision can be a big turning point in the football scene. The hearing will last three days. If Manchester City fails to successfully defend itself, it will stop playing two seasons in the Champions League and lose more than € 200M in revenue. The final decision is scheduled for several weeks later, always before the competition returns in August.
Both City and UEFA itself have asked TAS not to communicate who will be the judges of this arbitration, Due to the media impact of the case and what it may mean in the future of soccer.
The consequences can be devastating. In spite of the situation, Guardiola has confirmed that he will not move from City next season (your last year of contract), even if there is a penalty involved. But this can complicate the future of key footballers in the squad, as is the case with De Bruyne.
If the sanction is confirmed, the fifth place in the Premier will go to the Champions League.