Man City face Champions League ban after ‘unconvincing’ financial explanations in Uefa probe

MANCHESTER City’s title celebrations were stopped in their tracks as it emerged the Premier League winners face a Champions League ban for alleged Financial Fair Play breaches.

City are believed to have been accused by Uefa investigators of providing “unconvincing” explanations over the club’s finances.

And it is now understood that Uefa will be recommended to impose a season’s ban from European competition – which could open the door for fifth-placed Arsenal to be handed a Champions League place even if they lose the Europa League final to Chelsea.

Pep Guardiola’s side have been on the back foot for months after the “Football Leaks” document dump uncovered a series of allegations.

City were accused of “several alleged violations” of FFP regulations when Uefa announced its formal investigation in March.

That followed initial inquiries which started last year following the Football Leaks claims.

According to the cache of emails published by German magazine Der Spiegel, City hid at least £70milion in funding from owners Abu Dhabi United Group – the financial arm of the Emirate’s ruling family – by claiming it was sponsorship income.

City never denied the authenticity of any of the documents although the club insisted in March that the “accusations of financial irregularities are entirely false”.

Instead, the club condemned “the speculation resulting from the illegal hacking and out of context publication of City emails”.

‘CONCRETE CASE’

SunSport revealed in December how senior Uefa figures were demanding “sporting sanctions” against the Etihad club, pending the conclusion of what European football president Aleksander Ceferin described as a “concrete case”.

In February, former Belgian Prime Minister, Yves Leterme, the head of Uefa’s investigatory panel, suggested faced “exclusion from Uefa competition” if “what has been written is true”.

Many, inside and outside City, doubted whether Uefa would actually seek to punish a club which has been bankrolled by the Abu Dhabi government.

That view was intensified when Europe’s governing body backed away from issuing charges against Paris Saint-Germain, owned by the Qatar royal family.

But sources close to the investigation told the New York Times that Manchester City were “unconvincing” in their answers and explanations at a meeting with the investigators last month.

That led the panel to agree that punitive action needed to be recommended, with Leterme expected to lodge his report with Uefa chiefs in the next few days.

POINT TO PROVE

Within Uefa, it is felt that declining to punish City would throw the entire FFP system into disrepute and effectively see the entirely regulatory regime scrapped.

But there are still doubts over whether Leterme will go as far as his colleagues have recommended he should, or seek to avoid a full-on conflict with the oil-rich state.

Uefa confirmed last night that the report had yet to be received by bosses at headquarters in Nyon.

It also seems unlikely – although possible – that a ban would be imposed for next season.

Instead, it is expected that the adjudicatory chamber will take its time before either confirming or commuting the recommendations.

Even then, City would be certain to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, question the validity and legality of any FFP rules and also the legitimacy and proportionality of any ban, in a case that would take months to be decided.

The Uefa probe is one of four separate investigations City are currently facing.

Fifa are expected to announce a transfer ban over the club’s recruitment of overseas youngsters and is also looking at City’s Africa-based Right to Dream academy, now run by Danish side Nordsjaelland.

The Premier League announced in March it was investigating financial issues and academy recruitment while the FA is probing claims that City paid the family and agent of Jadon Sancho before the England winger joined the club from Watford as a schoolboy.