Manchester City’s lawyers believe they can overturn the club’s two-year Champions League ban by seizing upon prior Court of Arbitration for Sport findings that alleged leaks by Uefa were “worrisome”.
Dressing-room sources say Pep Guardiola and his players have received assurances from the club that their legal teams are confident of success by the end of May.
Guardiola is understood to be inclined to stay at the club, despite the ban. The manager is yet to speak publicly about City’s punishment and will not address the media ahead of tomorrow’s Premier League game against West Ham. He will speak for the first time after the match.
City are expected to wage war on the investigative process behind the sanctions brought by Uefa over “serious breaches” of its financial fair play rules, in their fresh appeal to be launched at the Swiss court.
The club have been collecting alleged “leaks of confidential information” by Uefa since the governing body launched the probe more than a year ago into claims that £60million was paid into the club by their billionaire Arab owners, but declared as sponsorship.
In a hint of how the club might fight a ban, a hacked email from club lawyer Simon Cliff read: “Khaldoon [Al Mubarak, the City chairman] said he would rather spend £30m on the 50 best lawyers in the world to sue them for the next 10 years.”
While the two-year ban imposed on Friday came as a shock, the club were quick to tell players they would be successful on appeal.
City have until the end of the week to state their wish to appeal again. They are certain to restate many of the arguments they made last year which claimed Uefa’s Club Financial Control Body had conducted “unlawful activities” prior to launching sanctions.