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Manchester City were handed a huge reprieve on Monday after they won their appeal against a two-year Champions League ban.

The highly anticipated result of Manchester City’s appeal against their two-year ban from European football was revealed in the club’s favour on Monday morning.

If City had been banned from European football for two seasons, they could have missed out on as much as £200m in lost revenue (£100m per season) on top of their original €30m fine which, of course, has now been slashed.

While all clubs, City included, are counting the cost of the coronavirus pandemic, they will have more cash to work with in the transfer window as they look to reclaim the Premier League title from Liverpool next season.
A major reason City have had their ban lifted is due to UEFA’s own rules stating how punishment can only have been implemented in a five-year window from the alleged offence.

In this instance, the charges levelled at City dated back to 2013 and were first leaked in November 2018 – by which point the five year window had already passed.

So UEFA were caught between a rock and a hard place and perhaps felt they had to be seen to be doing something. But City were confident of getting overturned for a reason. Rules are rules. – Daily Mail