London, Feb 20 (IANS): Manchester City's CEO Ferran Soriano has said that financial fair play allegations against the club were "simply not true".
UEFA announced last week that the club would be barred from competing in European tournaments for the next two seasons and fined 30 million euros for violations of club licensing and financial fair-play breaches, reports Efe news.
In a statement, Soriano said: "The most important thing I have to say today is that the allegations are not true, they're simply not true."
He added: "The owner has not put money in this club that has not been properly declared.
"We are a sustainable football club, we are profitable, we don't have debt, our accounts have been scrutinised many times by auditors, by regulators, by investors and this is perfectly clear."
He said City had cooperated with the investigation process and offered "irrefutable evidence that the claims are not true".
If upheld on appeal, the ruling would ban the club from competing in either the Champions League or Europe's second-tier club competition, the Europa League, until 2022-2023.
Soriano said City wants an "early resolution, obviously through a thorough process and a fair process" and that the issue is resolved by the beginning of the summer.
He said the players were "calm and focused" and sent a message to supporters: "The fans can be sure of two things, the first one is that the allegations are false.
"And the second is that we will do everything that can be done to prove so."
UEFA's Adjudicatory Chamber found City had committed "serious breaches" of the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations by overstating its sponsorship revenue in its accounts and in the break-even information submitted to UEFA between 2012 and 2016.
The administrative body also accused the club of refusing to cooperate in the investigation.
City said it would appeal the decision to the Lausanne, Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.
UEFA's decision has no bearing on Manchester City's 2019-2020 season, with the club set to take on Real Madrid next week in the first leg of their round of 16 clash in the Champions League, European soccer's premier annual club competition.