Manchester City showed a blatant disregard for UEFA's investigation into alleged Financial Fair Play (FFP) breaches, according to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but European football's governing body failed to prove City had disguised funding from the club's owners as sponsorship income. Earlier this month, CAS overturned a two-year ban from European competitions imposed on City by UEFA and reduced a fine of 30 million euros (R264 cr) to 10 million euros (R88 cr) .

Severe breach

The full judgement by CAS released on Tuesday showed that the fine was to reflect a severe breach in City's unwillingness to cooperate with UEFA's investigation. But that the charges of alleged concealment of equity funding were more significant violations and that "based on the evidence the panel cannot reach the conclusion that disguised funding was paid to City." The club were accused of deliberately inflating the value of income from sponsors to meet UEFA's FFP regulations, which limits the losses clubs can make to spend on player transfer fees and wages.