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Barcelona was punished for wrongly reporting profits from
“disposal of intangible assets” that should not have been accounted for as
income according to FFP rules, UEFA said in a statement. UEFA did not specify
the asset that was sold.
Man United did not meet its target to approach break-even on
soccer-related business that includes player transfers, wages and social taxes
for FFP assessment.
The former European champions each earned tens of millions
of euros (dollars) in UEFA prize money last season. Barcelona played in the
Champions League group stage then lost in the Europa League knockout playoffs
to United, which was eliminated at the quarterfinal stage by eventual winner
Sevilla.
UEFA’s club finance panel judged United’s offense, and
similar ones by APOEL and Konyaspor, to be “minor break-even deficits.” The
other clubs were each fined 100,000 euros ($112,000).
United published a statement citing the different way to
assess post-pandemic finances for the hundreds of clubs who qualify for
European competitions and then are scrutinized by UEFA-appointed investigators.
“This reflected a change in the way that UEFA adjusted for
COVID-19 losses during the 2022 reporting period, which allowed us to recognize
only 15 million euros of the 281 million euros of revenues lost due to the
pandemic within the FFP calculation,” the three-time European champion said.
A group of storied clubs – including AC Milan, Inter Milan
and Paris Saint-Germain – who were fined by UEFA last September all met their
stricter financial targets for last season. They will continue to be monitored
for compliance over the next year.
İstanbul Başakşehir did not meet its targets and was fined
400,000 euros ($448,000).
Two clubs failing to meet break-even targets in new cases
were new Belgian champion Royal Antwerp and Trabzonspor. Each must pay 300,000
euros ($336,000) now with conditional fines of up to 1.7 million euros ($1.91
million) more due if subsequent targets are missed.
Anderlecht was fined 100,000 euros ($112,000) as a previously
conditional financial penalty was activated.
Three clubs, Riga, Olimpija Ljubljana and Slovan Bratislava,
were each fined 10,000 euros ($11,200) for “failing to submit complete and
accurate break-even information by the required deadline.” It is the third time
Olimpija has been fined under FFP rules since its former board member
Aleksander Čeferin was elected UEFA president in 2016.
UEFA has updated the FFP rules that were approved in 2009
with a new monitoring system. It prioritizes financial sustainability for clubs
and moved away from setting competitive balance on the field as an achievable
target. -AP