In the initial judgment two weeks ago, CAS highlighted the club’s "failure to co-operate" but the full 93-page document shed further light on how the club successfully overturned a two-year ban from European competitions imposed by UEFA.
CAS stressed that UEFA did not instigate "frivolous charges" and had a "legitimate basis to prosecute" City based on leaked emails appearing to show the Abu Dhabi-owned club deceived the governing body by overstating sponsorship deals from 2012-16 and hid the source of revenue linked to state-backed companies in the emirate.
But on the funding from an Abu Dhabi communications firm that sponsors City, CAS said in the full verdict that the "charges with respect to equity funding being disguised as sponsorship contributions from Etisalat are time-barred." The club was "well aware" that the payments … were made as equity funding, not as payments for the sponsor on account of genuine sponsorship liabilities.