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Details of Manchester City’s astonishing appeal victory will possibly never be published through the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS).
The “written reasons” for the cancellation of Les Bleus’ two-year European ban will be announced today.
But the Swiss-based court has postponed the publication of the main points of the case until next week, and suggests that they will probably never see the smoothness of the day.
City surprised world football by overturning the UEFA sanction, which for alleged violations of its fair play monetary rules.
Les Bleus were acquitted of alleged safe violations, while the independent court found that others had violated UEFA’s statute of limitations, which stipulates that all fees must be paid within five years of alleged irregularity.
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They were found to be to blame for obstructing UEFA’s initial investigation, but the fine they won was reduced from 30 million euros to 10 million euros.
The feeling throughout the club is that the fine was reduced because his case – that the total episode an “clear and organized” attempt to destroy his reputation – had resonated with cas.
In fact, City called for the annulment of the entire previous proceedings this year, because of his confidence that leaks within UEFA were undermining the impartiality of the case.
The TAS rejected this request, however, it expressed its fear about UEFA members, obviously informing the media sections.
Details of the case have been eagerly awaited since the announcement of Monday’s decision, and the TAS first stated that the “arbitral award,” as it is known, would be published “at the end of the week.”
But now they have said that the publication has been postponed until early next week; however, even that will not take place if one or any of the parties objects to its publication.
Neither the City nor UEFA has indicated that they must maintain the confidentiality of the proceedings, but possibly neither has an explanation as to why they object to the publication.
If the city or UEFA wishes to maintain the confidentiality of the written reasons, they may be cancelled through the president of the CAS division. But that’s unlikely.
The TAS has already indicated that the arbitral award will be published in the coming week, unless there is an objection from one or any of the parties to the dispute.
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UEFA would probably not need the public procedure because it has been heavily criticized for what appears to be a failed attempt to come up with alleged violations of regulations that were prohibited on its own time limits.