The case against Manchester City for alleged breaches of Uefa’s financial fair play regulations will proceed to a full hearing after the court of arbitration for sport rejected City’s appeal against the charge being made.

City had appealed to Cas in May against the decision of Uefa’s club financial control body investigatory chamber to refer the alleged breaches to the CFCB’s adjudicatory chamber for a decision. The investigatory chamber is understood to have recommended that if the serious charges are proven, that City misled Uefa in 2013-14 about the source of sponsorship money paid to the club, City should be banned from the Champions League for a season.

BT Sport keeps Champions League rights in £1.2bn deal for 2021-24 Read more

The adjudicatory chamber, a five-person panel chaired by José Narciso da Cunha Rodrigues, a former judge at the European court of justice, and which includes the English barrister Charles Flint QC, is to start hearing the case in December, the Guardian understands.

The CFCB is set up to be judicially independent of the Uefa administration and its panels, composed of such senior European lawyers, are authorised to make decisions on guilt or innocence, and the appropriate sanction, based on the merits of the evidence.

City’s appeal against their referral to the adjudicatory chamber followed their furious public reaction, in which they accused the investigatory chamber of not giving the club a fair hearing, complaining that the referral decision was leaked shortly before it was publicly announced, and describing the process as “wholly unsatisfactory, curtailed and hostile”.

Cas ruled that City were not entitled to appeal at this stage because an arbitration case can be taken to Cas only against an actual disciplinary or final decision of a sports governing body. As, by definition, the case has yet to be heard by the adjudicatory chamber, City have not suffered any findings or sanctions to appeal against. They can argue at their adjudicatory chamber hearing that the process has been unfair.

The Cas panel ruled City’s appeal was “inadmissible” because: “An appeal against the decision of a federation, association or sports-related body may be filed with Cas … if the appellant has exhausted the legal remedies available to it prior to the appeal, in accordance with the statutes or regulations of that body.”

The Fiver: sign up and get our daily football email.

Cas was expected to reject City’s appeal on these grounds, as it follows a similar rejection last year of an appeal by Milan against a referral by the investigatory chamber.

The CFCB case against City follows “leaks” of the club’s internal emails and documents published by the German magazine Der Spiegel last year. They appear to show the club’s owner, Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi, provided the money for the 2013-14 sponsorship of the club by the state airline Etihad. The investigatory chamber was evidently not convinced by the explanations City offered, and referred the case for a decision.

City continue to maintain strongly they are not guilty of any wrongdoing and accused the investigatory chamber of ignoring “a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence”.