UEFA, the European football governing body, imposed sanctions on FC Barcelona, as officially stated on Friday.
The announcement was made at approximately 14.00 CEST and clarified that the CFCB First Chamber, chaired by Sunil Gulati, completed the evaluation of the break-even requirement for the financial years 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 during the 2022/2023 season.
UEFA pointed out that this assessment was carried out based on the “old” Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations, Edition 2018, and would be the last time clubs were assessed under these regulations.
For not meeting the “break-even requirement,” Royal Antwerp FC and Trabzonspor were each fined €2 million ($2.2 million), while FC Barcelona received a fine of €500,000 ($560,000) for inaccurately reporting profits on the disposal of intangible assets (excluding player transfers) in the 2022 financial year. These assets were not considered as relevant income according to the regulations.
It is essential to note that the fine is unrelated to the ‘Caso Negreira’ Referees Committee Payments Scandal, which had raised concerns about a potential Champions League ban for Barcelona.
In March, the Barcelona provincial prosecutor’s office charged Barca with “continued corruption in the sports field” due to payments made to the Ex-Vice President of the Referees Committee, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.
