According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, Manchester City has appealed its two-year ban from being allowed to compete in European club competition. The two major events that Manchester City is not allowed to participate in are the United European Football Association Champions League and the UEFA Europa League.
UEFA punished Manchester City in February for breaching European Soccer’s Financial Fair Play Rules and was given a 30 million Eurodollar fine. The franchise is accused of “overstating its sponsorship revenue in its accounts” between 2012 and 2016,” according to Alex Young of the Evening Standard.
Manchester City will be making its case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland from June 8-10. The English Premier League franchise is confident that they can build a strong case in court and believed there was prejudice in UEFA’s findings according to Alex Young of The Evening Standard.
If UEFA’s decision to penalize Manchester City is upheld in court, then Manchester City will not be allowed to participate in European club competition for soccer during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons. However, there is no guarantee that there will be a 2020-21 UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League because there is not yet a vaccine for coronavirus.
Currently, Manchester City is second in the English Premier League with 57 points. Under the current scenario, the fifth place team (which happens to be English soccer superpower Manchester United) will qualify for the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League. They will be joined by Liverpool, Leicester City, and Chelsea. Then the sixth and seventh place teams from the EPL will represent England in the 2020-21 UEFA Europa League. Those teams are currently Wolverhampton and Sheffield United.
Manchester City’s top player at the moment is Sergio Aguero, a 31 year-old striker from Argentina. Aguero is tied for third in goals with 16. Aguero is tied with Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah of Egypt, and is only behind Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy of Sheffield, England (19 goals), and Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of France (17 goals).
It has not yet been reported when the EPL plans to restart. Six players or staff members from three English Premier League teams tested positive for coronavirus in the first wave of mass testing. At this time we know one player and two staff workers were with Watford.
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