City believe the internal emails were taken out of context

Manchester City have refused to respond to Uefa investigators over allegations that they misled financial regulators over the club’s income, on the grounds that the accusations are based on hacked emails.

Uefa’s independent Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) is investigating leaked emails which appear to show £59.5 million of sponsorship money that was supposed to come from the Etihad airline in 2015 was paid by their owners Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG).

The CFCB approached City for their response to the allegations and emails published by Der Spiegel, the German magazine, from the Football Leaks cache of documents. The club, however, are understood to have declined to provide any explanation and instead pointed out in a written response the claims arose from internal emails