By Rob Draper and Nick Harris for The Mail on Sunday
Published: 22:30 BST, 18 May 2019 | Updated: 23:03 BST, 18 May 2019
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As Manchester City bask in the glory of a domestic treble and are judged one of the greatest teams of the Premier League era, it is tempting to question whether this will be the peak of Sheik Mansour's ownership.
City insist they are not guilty of Financial Fair Play offences which could lead to a Champions League ban in 2020-21, but if they are banned it could set them into a negative financial spiral with potentially dire consequences.
With the state apparatus of Abu Dhabi effectively behind them as well as the Chinese state in CITC, it is inconceivable that they would let the investment in City, which Sheik Mansour bought in 2008, wither and die. Yet the regulatory challenges ahead are considerable — even if they avoid a ban.
Manchester City completed a domestic treble by winning the FA Cup final on Saturday
There is the separate prospect of a FIFA transfer ban for signing underage players, which is also subject to an FA inquiry and the Premier League is looking into whether they have broken their Financial Fair Play rules. Again, City deny wrongdoing and insist they will be cleared in all cases.
The imminent threat, though, comes from UEFA's Club Financial Control Body who appear to have concluded that City simply misrepresented their income, thus breaching the fundamentals of the FFP rules that information must be 'complete and accurate'.
City say that the CFCB have ignored 'irrefutable evidence' that exonerates them and that they will be cleared by an independent judicial body, that the Court of Arbitration for Sport would overturn the decision.
However if the adjudicatory chamber agrees with the CFCB and CAS endorse that decision, a
