With the treble winners having won the Ballon d’Or Club of the Year award in 2022 and 2023, joining the ECA Board further demonstrates Manchester City’s growing influence and position within European football.
Following Rodri’s thunderous goal at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in the 68th minute, Manchester City defeated Inter Milan to win the UEFA Champions League for the first time in June.
Along with their first-ever European victory, Pep Guardiola’s team also enjoyed significant domestic success, winning the Premier League for the third straight year and the Emirates FA Cup after defeating Manchester United 2-1 at Wembley Stadium.
Manchester City was hit with a slew of Premier League charges in February for alleged financial infractions, with the club vehemently disputing the 115 charges.
The alleged violations of financial information, profitability and sustainability, player and manager compensation, failure to cooperate, and UEFA rules are said to have occurred over a nine-year period.
Manchester City has also had a rocky relationship with UEFA in the past; in 2020, the club was able to have a two-year ban from participating in European competitions overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Manchester City’s position is confirmed by Ferran Soriano’s election to the influential European Clubs’ Association (ECA) Board. BBC Sport’s Simon Stone confirmed that the Blues’ CEO had replaced Tottenham’s Daniel Levy as the Premier League’s representative on the committee.
Soriano had previously served as an ECA observer, but after the organization expanded to include more than 450 clubs, he joins an expanded Board.
When the European Super League was introduced, Manchester City was one of the 12 clubs to abruptly resign from the ECA.
Despite this, the club kept its membership because it decided against joining a breakaway league.
The ECA, presided over by Nasser Al-Khelaifi of Paris Saint-Germain, serves as a “independent body for football clubs at European level,” recognized internationally, with the mission to “safeguard, strengthen, and develop European clubs’ interests.”.
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