Manchester City’s hierarchy surpassed themselves with the aggression and ferocity of their response to the Valentine’s Day blow from Uefa, the two-year ban from the Champions League and €30m fine for deceit in their financial submissions. City have been hostile and adversarial in their public statements, and conduct of their case, throughout the investigation by European football’s governing body that followed the leaks of the club’s emails published by Der Spiegel in November 2018.
This time City went further and made it personal, reacting to the very serious finding that they did mislead Uefa by overstating their sponsorship revenue, principally from the Abu Dhabi state airline Etihad, between 2012 and 2016. The statement City unleashed immediately included the same notes of a tune the club has been playing for a year now, but with added volume. The Uefa club financial control body (CFCB), two semi-independent panels of distinguished lawyers, politicians and professors which oversees financial fair play compliance, had run a “flawed”, “consistently leaked” and “prejudicial” process, which was totally biased.
Written by David Conn
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/feb/15/manchester-city-disrespect-uefa-misinformation-sweeping-allegations under the title “Manchester City show disrespect to Uefa with misinformation and sweeping claims | David Conn”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
