UEFA will be 'under a lot of pressure' to review FFP and its procedures after CAS overturn Man City ban

London, July 14: UEFA could come under public pressure to review its Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations and procedures after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) quashed Manchester City's two-year European ban, according to sports lawyer Rob Jones.

The initial sanction, including a €30million fine, was announced by UEFA in February after it found City guilty of breaching FFP rules between 2012 and 2016.

UEFA had launched an investigation after a series of articles published by Der Spiegel in November 2018 alleged the Premier League club had artificially inflated sponsorship revenues.

City took the case to CAS, which found in their favour on Monday. While fined a reduced €10m for failing to co-operate with the investigation, the suspension from European competitions was overturned.

CAS is yet to publish the full written reasons for its decision but stated most of the alleged breaches were "either not established or time-barred" due to a five-year limit in UEFA's regulations.

While there may be public calls for reform, Jones says any potential review of UEFA's FFP rules and procedures, and their implementation, will depend on the reasons CAS outlines for its decision.

Asked by Stats Perform News how significant the decision is, Jones said: "If it's detailed in the final award that there were procedural irregularities and conduct that UEFA were responsible for that has had a meaningful impact on the decision that has been made by CAS, then UEFA will be under a lot of pressure to make reforms of its procedures.

"I don't think, looking at the media release, that there are ground-breaking, fundamental principles that have been decided as unlawful and affect other sports disputes procedures.

"But the final award may reflect on some procedural issues that UEFA may need to address. And if that is the case then they will be under a lot of pressure - and not that they're not under a lot of pressure anyway at the moment - to reform the FFP regulations.

"It seems to the general public like the rules don't have teeth … surely the current FFP is not fit for purpose and they'll be under a lot of pressure for a review of it.

"I know the president of UEFA has been talking about a luxury tax and other sorts of reforms generally. I think they are slightly delayed at the moment because of the pandemic.

"But certainly there will be a lot of pressure to at least review, if not conduct some minor or more material reforms on their policies and procedures."