By Oyinlola Awonuga (The New Diplomat’s Entertainment, Fashion and Sports Desk)
Former Super Eagles head coach Sunday Oliseh is happy with the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to overturn the two-year Champions League ban handed down to Manchester City by UEFA.
City had appealed against their two-year ban to CAS, handed down to them in February by UEFA for alleged breaches of club licensing and financial fair play regulations.
As well as their two-year ban, City were also hit with a fine of almost £27m but the fear of a mass player exodus was even more worrying for the club.
The citizens have always denied any wrongdoing and were confident they would be exonerated.
The decision was announced on Monday morning.
Losing the appeal could have inflicted a fatal blow to Manchester City under Guardiola, with the manager’s future as well as that of their star players, including Kevin De Bruyne, all in serious doubt without Champions League football.
“Extremely pleased for Man. City fans and players, especially my favorite, Kevin de Bruyne. A ban risked breaking up the players and their beautiful style of football.
“Here we go football lovers,get ready for another interesting 2020/2021 Champions league and EPL season,” Oliseh wrote on his Twitter handle few hours after the verdict.
It was recently reported that Guardiola himself insisted that he hadn’t lost any sleep over the decision and was confident City would be playing in the Champions League next season.
Following City’s thrashing of Brighton on Saturday, Guardiola said: “I am going to sleep because I cannot do anything.
“I am confident in the club, I know the arguments, the defence they have and in the next season we are going to be in the place where we won on the pitch this season.”
Champions League expulsion for City would have meant a fifth-placed finish would have been for sufficient for City’s replacement to qualify for the competition, as City sits well clear of the rest in second place in the table, behind only champions Liverpool.
Chelsea, Leicester, Manchester United, Sheffield United, Wolves, Tottenham and Arsenal, who are respectively placed third down to ninth in the table, could potentially have benefitted from the ban being upheld due to the shift in requirement for Champions League and Europa League qualification.
UEFA’s club financial control body had originally found that City had committed a ‘serious’ breaches of the organisation’s FFP rules between 2012-16.
The investigation followed claims in German magazine Der Spiegel, based on leaked documents, that City’s owner Sheikh Mansour was topping up the value of sponsorship.
