The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decided on Monday to lift the ban on Manchester City's participation in European competitions. Pep Guardiola and his club should be able to play in the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League.

"The CAS award emphasized that most of the alleged breaches reported by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the CFCB were either not established or time-barred. As the charges for any dishonest concealment of equity funding were clearly more significant violations than obstructing the CFCB's investigations, it was not appropriate to impose a ban on participating in UEFA's club competitions for MCFC's failure to cooperate with the CFCB's investigations alone," said the CAS in a statement.

"Whilst Manchester City and its legal advisors are yet to review the full ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the club welcomes the implications of today's ruling as a validation of the club's position and the body of evidence that it was able to present. The club wishes to thank the panel members for their diligence and the due process that they administered," said Man City in a statement.

"UEFA takes note of the decision taken by the Court of Arbitration for Sport to reduce the sanction imposed on Manchester City FC by UEFA's independent Club Financial Control Body for alleged breaches of the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play regulations," said the UEFA.

In February, the UEFA announced that Man City will be prohibited from the future European competitions for two years and must pay 30-million-euro (about 33.9 million U.S. dollars) fine for violating the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations (FFP). The club then took the case to the CAS.

Of course, Man City did not come out of the courtroom all clean because it would have to pay a fine of 10 million euros (about 11.3 million U.S. dollars) to the UEFA within 30 days. That money was no bigger than peanuts compared with the bonuses the team will make via participating in the Champions League.

This decision of the CAS will not be welcomed by the Premier League clubs that are still competing for Champions League qualification, especially Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Tottenham Hotspur. Currently, Man City rank No. 2 in the Premier League with 72 points, and there are only three games to go for most clubs (four for Man United). If Man City are banned, then the No. 5 team will be able to attend the Champions League.

Nonetheless, the scenario has changed. From No. 3 to No. 5 are Chelsea (60 points), Leicester City (59 points), and Man United (58 points.). None of them can surpass Man City this season, which means there are only two Champions League spots for them to compete – one of them will have to go. As for Jose Mourinho and his Spurs, going for Europa League qualification sounds like a more practical goal.