Manchester City have filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport against UEFA after European football's governing body referred the club to the adjudicatory chamber for breaches of financial fair play regulations, CAS has announced.
City are arguing that a biased process has not been conducted properly, questioning Uefa’s legal competence to pursue the case and claiming they have no case to answer.
But despite the paperwork being lodged with the Lausanne-based court, Uefa are not anticipating any delay to their proceedings.
CAS yesterday (Thurs) confirmed it had “registered” City’s appeal.
The Court said: “An arbitration procedure will now be initiated and will involve an exchange of written submissions between the parties while a Panel of CAS arbitrators is convened to hear the appeal.
“Once the Panel has been formally constituted, it will issue a procedural calendar. It is not possible to say at this time when the Arbitral Award for this matter will be issued.”
But unless CAS orders the judges on the adjudicatory chamber of Uefa’s club financial control body to put their deliberations on hold, it is expected City’s case will be determined before the end of the summer.
Uefa were stunned and surprised by the turn of events which came out of the blue and had not been flagged in advance to them.
The investigation headed by former Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme found City in breach of Financial Fair Play regulations.
Following an investigation set in motion by the Football Leaks document dump, City have been accused of hiding funding from the club’s Abu Dhabi United Group owners under the guise of sponsorship income from Gulf-based companies.