PSG and Juventus among those hit with UEFA Financial Fair Play fines
According to The Times, the club chaired by Al Khelaïfi and others would have reached a financial agreement with the governing body, to avoid being banned.
UEFA announced on Friday that an agreement had been reached with several clubs that failed to comply with the Financial Fair Play rules and whose fines amount to a total of €172 million. They are obliged to pay 15% of it now and if they continue non-compliance in future revisions will have to stump up the full amount. But no bans were handed out, meaning the rule breaking was likely worth it, and again it proves not to be a deterrent.
How much was PSG fined by UEFA?
Paris Saint-Germain suffered the greatest sanction with UEFA imposing a fine of €65 million, although now they must pay only €10 million (the 15%). Even so, it is still a considerable amount considering the close relationship between Nasser Al-Khelaifi and the body -- he is the chairman of the European Club Association remember -- but is a relatively drop of oil in the ocean to the organisation’s Qatari owners. The other clubs with which the governing body reached an agreement were AC Milan (ITA), Monaco (FRA), Roma (ITA), Beşiktaş (TUR), Inter Milan (ITA), Juventus (ITA), and Marseille (FRA), none of whom met the break-even requirement.
“These eight clubs agreed to financial contributions of €172m,” UEFA said. “These amounts will be withheld from any revenues these clubs earn from participating in UEFA club competitions or paid directly.
“Of this amount, €26m (15 per cent) shall be paid in full while the remaining balance of €146m (85 per cent) is conditional depending on these clubs’ compliance with the targets stated in the respective settlement agreement.”
Those settlement agreements will span three years for all the clubs except Inter Milan and Roma who requested four-year terms.
The analysis covered fiscal years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. Fiscal years 2020 and 2021 were subject to the covid emergency measures aimed at balancing the adverse impact of the pandemic.
Are Barcelona, Manchester City and Chelsea at risk of UEFA sanctions?
There are two other clubs that are being investigated and would have carried another sanction, among them, according to UK media outlet The Times, would be FC Barcelona. However, according to the UEFA notification, there is no financial agreement between the body that regulates Fair Play and the blaugrana club.
Barça is one of 19 other clubs that UEFA have said will be “further asked for additional financial information and will be monitored closely in the upcoming period”. These also include Manchester City, Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Sevilla, Lazio, Napoli, Rangers and West Ham, and were said to have fulfilled the break-even requirement only “thanks to the application of the covid-19 emergency measures and/or because they benefited from historical positive break-even results”.
(Note: €1 = $1)