Harlequins appear to have avoided expulsion from this season's Heineken Cup partly because the club successfully argued that the financial hit would be equivalent to a £25m fine for Manchester United and could result in them going out of business.

According to the detail of the European Rugby Cup appeal committee judgment that was published today, the club's lawyer also drew an analogy with the Carlos Tevez saga when an arbitration panel ruled that the Premier League was right not to deduct points because of the punitive impact on the club and a "substantial number of innocent persons".

The solicitor Stephen Hornsby attempted to argue that faults lay with the playing side rather than the "financial and corporate management" of the club and it would be "grossly unfair if the club had to carry the can" for the actions of Dean Richards, Quins' former director of rugby.

The ERC board is meeting today to discuss the fate of the club, but is likely to uphold the decision of the appeal committee that the club should not be banned because its errors were of "omission rather than commission". Instead, it ordered that a fine of €250,000 (£219,000) be increased to €300,000 (£263,000), to be paid in two instalments before the end of the year.

It found that while they were at fault for allowing Richards "far too great a degree of unfettered control over matters within the rugby department", there was "no evidence" that the club hierarchy knew the true extent of the conspiracy to fake the injury or the subsequent cover up until Richards confessed on 3 August.

The chief executive, Mark Evans, argued that the impact of a ban from the Heineken Cup would result in the loss of 15% of turnover, which he likened to the equivalent of a £25m fine for Manchester United. He said "a ban would cause the most extraordinary financial pressure" and "could not see how this could be survived". Harlequins have a turnover of £11m a year but continue to make a loss.

The ERC disciplinary officer, Roger O'Connor, who lodged the appeal against the earlier unproven verdicts against Richards and the club's physio, Steph Brennan, pushed hard for a ban but the appeal committee ruled that as the ERC had earlier argued that a points deduction would cause too much disruption to the tournament before the initial hearing, its position was inconsistent.