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LONDON. — It seems to say everything about football’s wild economics that Manchester City can be fined the best part of £9m — one of the largest penalties ever handed out — and yet still consider it a victory.

The vital, detailed Court of Arbitration for Sport judgment is still a few days away, yet yesterday’s 377-word summary reveals enough to show that this is a technical victory for City — not a moral one.

CAS have rescinded City’s two-season ban from European competition either because the alleged offences were committed too far in the past under UEFA’s Statute of Limitation — which imposes a five-year cut-off — or because City’s refusal to cooperate with the investigation simply made it impossible to get to the bottom of them.

The club were incandescent when UEFA found they had breached Financial Fair Play by deliberately inflating the value of sponsorship deals.

They claimed they were victims of football’s cartel, innocents in the face of a monumental carve-up.

No reason, then, not to cooperate fully with investigators, to establish the true facts? “They wilfully obstructed them. CAS states the importance of cooperation because of the UEFA examining committee’s “limited investigative means.’’  — Mailonline.