The Citizens will not be able to participate in either the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League for the next two seasons,

Manchester City will not be able to play in the next two editions of the UEFA Champions League due to "serious breaches" of UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules. 

Football's governing body in Europe has imposed sanctions to the club via its Adjudicatory Chamber, which consist in the aforementioned ban, added to the payment of a €30M fine ($32M).

UEFA's Adjudicatory Chamber stated via a press release that the club failed to cooperate with the UEFA Club Financial Control Body, which was in charge of investigating the team's Financial Fair Play regulations.

The press release issued by UEFA exposes the serious breaches made by the English club, who failed to disclose their financial information regarding transfers and their sponsorship deals.

"The Adjudicatory Chamber, having considered all the evidence, has found that Manchester City Football Club committed serious breaches of the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations by overstating its sponsorship revenue and in the break-even information submitted to UEFA between 2012 and 2016," the document states.

"The Adjudicatory Chamber has also found that in breach of the regulations the Club failed to cooperate in the investigation of this case by the CFCB," the press release adds.

The initial sanction will see the Manchester-based club missing out on the 2020-21 and 2021-22 UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. While the decision is by no means definitive, it seems that the Citizens will have a hard time fighting for their innocence on this matter.

Manchester City issues press release after ban

Manchester City has swiftly reacted to UEFA's sanction, accusing its Chief Investigator, José da Cunha Rodrigues, of leaking information to the media and not arriving to the aforementioned conclusions without prejudice.

"In December 2018, the UEFA Chief Investigator publicly previewed the outcome and sanction he intended to be delivered to Manchester City, before any investigation had even begun. The subsequent flawed and consistently leaked UEFA process he oversaw has meant that there was little doubt in the result that he would deliver.  The Club has formally complained to the UEFA Disciplinary body, a complaint which was validated by a CAS ruling," the first paragraph of Manchester City's document states.

"Simply put, this is a case initiated by UEFA, prosecuted by UEFA and judged by UEFA. With this prejudicial process now over, the Club will pursue an impartial judgment as quickly as possible and will therefore, in the first instance, commence proceedings with the Court of Arbitration for Sport at the earliest opportunity," the team adds via the press release issued on their website.

It is yet to be revealed how the Premier League will allocate Manchester City's spot in the UEFA Champions League for the next two seasons if this ruling is upheld by CAS.