UEFA on Friday imposed limited financial penalties on eight European clubs, including Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus Turin, for violating financial fair play accounting rules, agreeing with them a recovery plan on at least least three seasons. PSG will have to pay ten million euros, while two other French clubs, Olympique de Marseille and AS Monaco will have to pay 300,000 euros each, said the European body in a press release.
These amounts are likely to rise to 65 million for the Parisian club and two million euros for OM and ASM if they do not meet their commitments by the 2025/26 season.
The eight clubs in the sights of the Control Body
The eight sanctioned formations, which were qualified in 2021/22 for European competitions and as such subject to financial fair play, were in the sights of UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB). AS Roma was fined five million euros “unconditionally”, that is to say independent of its subsequent efforts to clean up the accounts, Inter Milan four million euros, Juventus Turin of 3.5 million euros, AC Milan (freshly bought by the American fund Redbird) of two million euros and the Turkish club of Besiktas of 600,000 euros.
If the four Italian teams and the Istanbul club do not achieve the objectives defined with the ICFC, these amounts will rise to 35 million euros for AS Roma, 26 million euros for Inter Milan, 23 million euros for Juve, 15 million for the Rossoneri and 4 million for Besiktas.
No new players for AS Roma and Inter Milan
Most clubs have accepted a three-season recovery plan which only includes accounting commitments, but AS Roma and Inter Milan have opted for a four-season agreement, which also prohibits them from registering any new players for European competitions in 2022/23 and 2023/24.
Introduced in 2010 to clean up European football, then launched into a mad race for debt, financial fair play prohibits clubs involved in continental competitions from exceeding a deficit of 30 million euros accumulated over three seasons – a rule relaxed for 2020-21 and 2021-22 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Extensive Financial Fair Play overhaul announced
But UEFA announced in the spring a vast overhaul of this system, intended to encourage the arrival of investors while limiting the flight of wages. For this, the authority will double the deficit allowed over three years for each club, and gradually introduce a very attenuated form of “salary cap”, a rule dear to North American sports franchises (basketball, American football, hockey), but which It was impossible to transpose identically with 55 federations with different legislations.
Concretely, clubs will have to limit the salaries of their players and coaches, transfer fees and agent commissions to 70% of their income from the 2025/2026 season.