The report by the adjudicatory committee of UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) is effectively the written reasons behind the decision announced in February 2020 to suspend City from European competition for two years. UEFA did not comment on the report when contacted by the PA news agency on Friday. The report said City’s lawyers had told a UEFA disciplinary hearing that two £15m sponsorship payments from telecommunications firm Etisalat in 2012 and 2013 were made by a man called Jaber Mohammed, who was described as a broker, and that Etisalat repaid the money to City’s owners in 2015. In the same judgement, the CAS panel also stated it was “not comfortably satisfied” that City had disguised equity funding from Sheikh Mansour or ADUG as sponsorship contributions from the Etihad airline. Little is known about the company behind it, Sunrise Media, which was registered in the British Virgin Islands on June 9.

Source: The Times June 30, 2023 11:13 UTC