PostedAugust 23, 2022, 7:01 PM
Football – Fair-play financier: UEFA lists 20 clubs under scrutiny
According to the “Times”, several clubs, including Barcelona, Arsenal, Juventus, Inter and PSG, might be sanctioned for non-respect of financial fair play.
No, contrary to what one might think, financial fair play is not dead. According to the English daily “The Times”, new sanctions will fall next month. UEFA would thus be preparing to issue fines and transfer restrictions for those European clubs which have breached Financial Fair Play rules over the past two years. Two separate lists would exist: one includes ten clubs whose accounts are outside the framework imposed on the 2020-2021 season; the other, which has twice as many, would concern the 2021-2022 financial year.
On this first list would appear Juventus, Inter Milan, AS Roma and FC Barcelona, in addition to PSG and OM. According to “L’Équipe”, the two French teams would only be subject to financial sanctions, unlike Inter and Rome, who should suffer, in addition to fines, restrictions for the next transfer periods . All these clubs have already been alerted by UEFA and have started negotiations with the European body in order to reduce the sanctions once morest them.
An approach that Juventus and FC Barcelona, still convinced of setting up a European Super League, would have refused to undertake.
No more than 30 million over three years
The economic analysis also pointed to problems last season for 20 clubs, although their final accounts have not yet been filed with UEFA. It is therefore not excluded that their financial situation might still evolve in the right direction. This is for example the case of Arsenal – the London club suffered one of the biggest losses in the Premier League in the last three years – which would be part of these twenty teams.
Over this same period, the Gunners also recorded the highest net expenditure in terms of transfers (258 million euros). However, according to business blogger Swiss Ramble, the club’s next accounting results should comply with financial fair play rules.
It is worth recalling that according to the current UEFA FFP regulations – they will be amended as from the end of the current season – the losses of a club cannot exceed 30 million euros on three years. It should be noted that all expenses, qualified as “intelligent”, which concern young players as well as women’s teams, are not taken into account.