Barcelona, Man United fined by UEFA for breaking financial fair play rules

Referee Clement Turpin shows a yellow card to Barcelona’s Sergio Busquets, left, after he fouled Manchester United’s Alejandro Garnacho, ground, during the Europa League playoff second leg soccer match between Manchester United and Barcelona at Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. UEFA has fined Barcelona $560,000 and Manchester United must pay $336,000 for breaking Financial Fair Play rules.
| Photo Credit: AP

Barcelona was fined 500,000 euros ($560,000) by UEFA on Friday and Manchester United must pay 300,000 euros ($336,000) in the last round of financial monitoring using Financial Fair Play rules that have since been replaced.

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.

Man United did not meet its target to approach break-even on soccer-related business including player transfers, wages and social taxes.

UEFA’s club finance panel judged Man 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).

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.

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.